The Grand bargain project addresses six critical issues
Economic Mobility
The American Dream is increasingly out of reach
Climate Change
Increasingly destructive impact
Education
Most Americans lack the skills to get ahead in a high tech economy
National Debt
Rising at an unsustainable rate that could devastate our economy
Health Care
Most costly and inefficient system in the developed world
Tax Code
75,000 pages filled with perverse incentives
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Why these issues have been impossible to resolve
Dysfunctional Political System
Elections structured in a way that enables candidates to win more easily by assailing the other side than by trying to bridge differences.
No Forum for Collaboration
Well-organized groups have more influence on Capitol Hill than a disorganized public, and all lack a forum for bridging differences
Exhausted majority
Most voters deplore today’s hyperpartisan politics and yet — because they have views all over the spectrum — they lack political power.
Loss aversion
Voters who fear they will lose ground from major reform fight against it much harder than potential beneficiaries work to enact it.
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Strategy
The strategy that will overcome all four obstacles
Policy Experts have Presented Us with Common Sense Reforms for All Six Issues, So that Every Sector of Society Will Gain far more than Feasible Now.
The American Public, Civic Leaders and Major Stakeholders in all Six Issues are Providing Us Feedback on the Initial Plan.
The Feedback is Being Distilled into a Plan that Can Win Overwhelming Support.
We are Engaging the American People in Group Meetings and On Line to Create a Grassroots Movement for Positive Change.
Project timeline
Key Phases of the Grand Bargain Project
By dividing the project into distinct phases, we focus our efforts into measurable outcomes toward our overarching goals.
Done: Proof of Concept
In our breakout session at the Braver Angels national convention in late June, each attendee started out with different political priorities, ranging from very liberal to very conservative. Yet when we presented a summary of the evolving grand bargain, all but one preferred it over the country’s current direction. Half the attendees said they wanted their local chapters to hold a similar event in order to help start a national movement.
In-Progress: Spark a Grassroot Movement
We are partnering with grassroots organizations to show their members how a six-issue grand bargain could unite most Americans into a political movement large enough to promote unprecedented progress on all six issues and reverse the downward slide of our democracy.
We are also using social-digital media to reach the 100+ million citizens who hunger for progress in these six areas, but feel powerless to affect change, the so-called “exhausted majority.” Our message: By uniting around a common-sense grand bargain, we would become a movement that anyone who shares our aspirations would have every reason to join.
Mobilizing the Public
Grand Bargain Action Network will build voter support.
Center for collaborative democracy
Sponsor of the Grand Bargain Project. We strive to help every American reach their potential by working with business leaders, consumer advocates, labor unions, environmentalists, civil rights groups and other major stakeholders to develop innovative solutions for our nation’s most critical problems. We see that process as necessary to reduce the hyper-polarization that threatens our democracy.