‘Morning Joe’ Imagines a World With Less Political Polarization: ‘This Is Where Most People Live’

Builders Movement cofounders Daniel Lubetzk and Lonnie Ali joined MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Wednesday to discuss what a world would look like with less political polarization.

“This is where most people live. This is what most people want. They want to work together, they want some real solutions,” MSNBC anchor Willie Geist stated. “They don’t want to be screaming at each other on social media or on TV or anywhere else. Sometimes that extremism is amplified in a way that’s not representative of what it really is.”

Over the past five years, many Americans have spoken out about the country’s extreme, heightening political divdes. During their “Morning Joe” appearance, Lubetzk and Ali opened up about the goals of their organization Builders Movement, which seeks to alleviate the heat around political polarization, particularly as tensions grow as election season closes in.

“The Builders is an extension of Starts With Us, an initiative that Daniel started years ago to have people think with courage and compassion and try to overcome those differences,” Ali said. “We try to … bring people together with diverse backgrounds, with different attitudes. But with the common goal of working together, overcoming differences to find pragmatic solutions to some of the most challenging problems we have in our society today. We have equipped that with a Builders tool kit and skillset and support to help people achieve those goals.”

Lubetzk named social media, disinformation and cable news outlets as some of the items that he feels has encouraged division in the country, while also sharing that the organization — which has more than 250 “moving partners” —  provides tools for communities to help combat those seemingly divisive elements.

“A Builders toolkit to provide to universities, a Builders network to try to help get everybody to listen today with the understanding that every single day, and how we treat one another and how we act in our community and how we deploy a problem-solving toolkit. We can actually be builders or we can be destroyers,” he said.

Watch the full “Morning Joe” segment in the video above.