Bridging the Divide in America

 with Tom Brokaw, Geoff Garin, and Glen Bolger

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by Reg Seeton

Although Americans have been frustrated over the many political, social, and economic divides in the United States, veteran news anchor Tom Brokaw has been hard at work with USA Network and the Characters Uniteproject to explore solutions to the problems that plague America today. On Friday, December 10 at 7/6c on USA Network, Tom Brokaw will share his assessment of the nation’s civil rights progress and how Americans are addressing key issues based on his reporting for the special, Tom Brokaw Presents Bridging the Divide.

In looking for solutions to the divide in the United States, Tom Brokaw looks beyond sensational headlines, stories, and politicized rhetoric to where Americans stand on civil rights issues while also getting expert opinion on the status of racism, gay rights, access for people with disabilities, bullying, and discrimination towards immigrants.

Ahead of Bridging the Divide on December 10, TheDeadbolt spoke with Tom Brokaw along with Geoff Garin of Hart Research Associates (D) and Glen Bolger of Public Opinion Strategies (R) who will release the results of the second annual "United or Divided" nationally representative survey, revealing American attitudes on many of the civil and human rights issues.

THE DEADBOLT: When President Obama was first elected into office, you told me that what America needed at the time was straight talk. In terms of bridging the divide, how has Obama fallen short of talking straight enough for tolerance?

TOM BROKAW: Well, I think you have to be careful about overstating all of the divisions that were perceived to be healed. He was the first African American President that was elected. But you have to remember that Senator John McCain got a lot of votes as well and it did break down a lot along racial lines.

He had an overwhelming majority of the African American votes. I can’t remember what the exact number was, but I think it was in the ninetieth percentile and a very very substantial portion of the fastest growing voter block in America, which is the Latino vote or Hispanic vote.

So there were racial fractures even then, and that has grown. What was striking to me in looking at this is that if you go into the internals, as they say, the exasperation of discrimination as a result of the economy is that you see that’s it’s much more of a concern among the white respondents than it is among Hispanic and black respondents.

My guess is that it’s a larger body of population, for one thing, and they are feeling more threatened about losing their jobs. Among black and Latino respondents, it’s kind of a question of "been down so long it seems like up to me." They’re not seeing it in the same cataclysmic terms that some white respondents are.

So it’s a very complex issue and I don’t think you can assign it to just the President of the United States or one figure. This is a landscape that we have not been through in my lifetime in terms of the economy, in terms of the depth of it and the anxiety about not just what’s going on in the short term but where we go from here, because we’re now competing.

As everybody in the most remote parts of America knows, we’re now competing not just to against region to region in this country but against India and Vietnam and China and these expanding global economies.

THE DEADBOLT: Given the results of the second survey and the polls, can you talk about whether you’ve seen a divide between American attitudes and the media?

GEOFF GARIN: I’ve been doing this for thirty-two years, a little longer than Glen. Frankly, I don’t think there’s ever been a moment I can remember where antagonism towards institutions in general has been so pervasive and so persistent, and the media is included in that.

The only question we really asked in the media this time is whether they’re dealing with something important on bullying or blowing it out of proportion and here it’s actually a positive result.

But in other things we've seen, frankly, there’s a sense that, like other institutions, the media is often part of the problem rather than part of the solution, out for its own. It tries to exasperate things because it makes for better press or better ratings.

So it doesn’t mean that anybody is ready to throw the baby out with the bath water. But just answering your question more generally, I think there is a real frustration with institutions in general right now in these regards.

Glen, do you want to add?

GLEN BOLGER: I would concur with that.