Opinion: Civility — the problem no presidential candidate can solve

The presidential race has shifted dramatically in recent weeks. The only sure bet moving forward is that there are no sure bets.
But here’s what I do know. No matter who wins come November, the underlying conditions in our country will not have fundamentally shifted — pervasive mistrust, deep divisions, and growing inequities and disparities will still exist. In fact, when the polls close on election night, things are likely to get worse before they get better.
For over 35 years, I’ve supported individuals, organizations and communities in their quests to create lasting change. My approach has spread to all 50 states and 40 countries worldwide. I’ve worked everywhere from Flint, Michigan, after the community lost tens of thousands of auto jobs, to Newtown, Connecticut, following the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Each election season, I return to a key lesson I learned from these experiences. Politics will not — indeed, cannot — solve what ails much of our society today.
Let me be clear. Each of us needs to vote our conscience this November. Yet if we really want to move the country forward, we will need a much deeper response than just electing a new president.
Since January, I’ve been crisscrossing the country — everywhere from Rep. Matt Gaetz’s district in Pensacola, Florida, to Fresno, California, to Selma, Alabama — calling for a new civic path that can address the chaos and despair consuming society today. Everywhere I go, the response has been overwhelmingly positive. People are hungry for an alternative to our divisive politics; they are hungry for something real.
But why a civic path?
Listen to Americans for even a moment and what becomes clear is that what ails us is a lost sense of control over our lives. A deep separation from one another. A belief that our concerns are not being heard or valued. Too many people feel that they and their communities are being left out and left behind. These are human challenges that demand a human response.
The change we need must start in our local communities and grow from there. It is in our local communities that we can restore our belief that we can get things done together. There, we can figure out what we can agree on amid our real differences and get in motion. Step by step, we can unleash a chain reaction of actions that builds momentum and restores our sense of possibility and hope.
The good news is that communities across the country are already forging this civic path. Places like Reading, Pennsylvania, once declared the poorest community in the country; Alamance County, North Carolina, one of the most divided places I’ve ever worked; and Logan and Union counties in Ohio, which just so happen to be in the district of Rep. Jim Jordan, the co-founder of the House Freedom Caucus.
Why are communities like this on the move against the odds?
They are focusing on issues people care most about — things like youth opportunities, education, mental health, support for seniors, safety and connection with others. What’s more, they removed these issues from a heated political frame and instead framed them in terms of people’s shared aspirations. This new frame asks each of us to give a little to get a lot, rather than try to win at all costs. It also strengthens our weakened civic culture — the norms, relationships, networks, leaders and sense of shared purpose that determine a community’s ability to move forward. Without strengthening our civic culture, we cannot move forward.
So many of the major sea changes in our past — from abolishing slavery to women’s suffrage to civil rights to gay rights — didn’t start in Washington, D.C., or even one of our state capitols. They started in our local communities. With leaders, citizens, neighbors and others believing that we can be better and do better. People gathered in homes. In church basements. In civic halls and town squares. They had sharp differences and disagreements, but they also forged a shared purpose that connected them to something larger than themselves. They were determined to go together.
This is the spirit we must tap into again today — both to create the change people seek and to build the momentum we need to transform our broken national politics. It starts locally.
I’m convinced that no political candidate or party can solve what ails America at this moment. The challenges we face are too deep, and they touch our daily lives in such profound ways. Yet history teaches us that the change we need can — and must — start in our local communities. We need a new civic path, now more than ever.
Richard C. Harwood is the president and founder of The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation.