It’s 2025 and the US is in the midst of upheaval. For the last few years I’ve resolved to try to understand better people I disagree with. I have to say that disagreement grows and understanding does not. Still it seems vital that we continue to try to understand each other as something beyond wrong.

Here are some points about which most people agree:

Change, always inevitable, is needed and happening.
Apparent disagreement is large, within this country and across much of the (reported upon) world.
In the US we still enjoy enormous privilege and freedom compared to many countries. We can still talk about all this. (Although for more and
more of us speaking honestly imperils our jobs and our professional and personal relationships.)
Some of our disagreements are what they’ve long been: different political and economic policy ideas about how to build a healthy and free
country for all citizens into the future.
Some of our disagreements are more dramatic divides, divides which are the heart, I think, of our current distress:

What does a successful state look like?

And maybe then: what does honest energy toward an agreed-upon end look like?

I’m interested to know the answers to those last questions from people across the political spectrum. Maybe start with just the first question. What does a successful state look like? Are there many people who want the US to become an exclusive home for Christians of a certain sect? If so what does that look like? Are there those interested in ecumenical pluralism but a less secular state? Are there those who would more completely codify the separation of church and state making an open society bound by shared non-spiritual tenets? What does the best future USA look like? If we could