Is our democracy broken? A way forward...

By Kathleen Joy of Portland, Oregon. Kathleen is the executive director of Oregon Volunteers, the Oregon Commission for Voluntary Action & Service - the agency that manages the AmeriCorps program in Oregon. In 2007, she contributed "How can we re-engage our communities?"

Amidst all the shouting and posturing that passes for political dialogue in America today, there's a question that looms: Is our democracy broken? Is it possible for Americans of varying viewpoints and divergent backgrounds to come together to come to a consensus, or even, just have a rational conversation? Can we use technology to bring Americans together - rather than in isolated ideological echo chambers?

On Saturday, June 26 at the Oregon Convention Center, we believe we can. We’re looking to engage a broad cross-section of northern Oregonians in a national conversation about the nation’s rising spending and ever-expanding debt. The event is intended to bring communities together despite political, ideological or regional differences on federal debt and spending. Portland is one of 20 locations across the country in which people will gather to take part in a virtual town hall meeting.

Coordinating the national effort is America Speaks, a nonprofit group that is using technology to erase regional barriers and to create conversations across broad distances. The goal is to connect folks in Washington, D.C. with the ideas and concerns of everyday Oregonians.

National and local organizers want to do it without the hot rhetoric, misleading "facts" and political spin that recently have made such conversations divisive and counterproductive.

Here’s a broad overview of the event day: Experts will frame the budget debate through a series of presentations; participants across the nation will then be asked to deliberate locally about policy options; and participants will then be asked to share their ideas with the rest of the nation using electronic media. The event will be broadcast online and open to the press. A preliminary report outlining the decisions the participants have made to balance the budget will be handed out at the end of the event and will be posted at usabudgetdiscussion.org.

The results of the town hall will then be shared with the members of the President’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.

Here in Oregon, working through the National Policy Consensus Center at Portland State University, more than 22 local organizations, ranging from organized labor to local government to Americans for Prosperity, have joined together to ensure that the participants at the Portland event reflect the ethnic, economic, and ideological diversity of the region. We know that this effort won’t succeed unless we are all willing to come together to listen and to learn from each other.

Nationally, the leadership team is composed of such divergent organizations as the Heritage Foundation and the Brookings Institute, along with a great number of folks in between. The national effort is funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Please plan to join us for this important conversation. For more information, or to register, go to usabudgetdiscussion.org.