Feldman: “You Have to Work with the Other Side”

“If you want to get anything done, you have to work with the other side.”

That was a key point of Harvard Law professor and author Noah Feldman’s talk on civility and citizenship at Gulf Coast Community Foundation’s 2018 Better Together community-education luncheon. Feldman's cogent, absorbing commentary was rooted in history yet of-the-minute in its relevance and potential for application.

Go here to view photos from the luncheon >>

The constitutional law expert's recent biography of James Madison details the origins of partisan politics in America and the inherent power of the U.S. Constitution to overcome it. At our Feb. 23 event, he recounted some of that fascinating history to a rapt audience of 450 community members while extrapolating lessons for how can make progress on today’s most divisive issues, even when we might feel paralyzed by polarization.

“I don’t like to sugar-coat things,” Feldman said, and he didn’t. He directly addressed our country’s history of slavery, and the fact that Madison professed the immorality of slavery yet protected it in the Constitution. Nor was Madison above making a buck on his own chattel, Feldman pointed out.

Feldman also noted that despite his biographical subject's paradoxes and moral shortcomings, the Constitution that Madison largely fathered remains to this day the ultimate “technology” for ensuring that we, the people, must push aside partisanship and find commonalities in order to advance public policy. We have before—at times when the divide was even more bitter—and we will again, Feldman assured the crowd. “It’s going to be all right,” he concluded, to a wave of laughter.

Civility, meanwhile, is the grease that lubricates the machine, Feldman said, making it easier for us to get things done efficiently and effectively. Coming together as a community, with different opinions but in an effort to find common ground, is a necessary start. “Gatherings like this one are actually the fabric that enables us to be a functioning republic,” he said.

To read media coverage of Better Together 2018, visit the following links:

Expert: A divided America isn’t unprecedented – Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Feb. 24

Carrie Seidman: Bridging the partisan divide – Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Feb. 25

Feldman: Democracy’s technology will force bipartisanship – SRQ Daily, Feb. 26

Photo Gallery: Better Together luncheon – Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Feb. 25

Gulf Coast Community Foundation speaker discusses civility in divisive times – Sarasota Magazine, Feb. 26

Leaders gathered for Better Together Feb. 23 at The Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota - Sarasota Observer, Feb. 26