Born of Political Violence, This Group Helps Nonprofit Causes Find ‘Surprising’ Allies

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Tim Dixon was a close friend of the slain politician. Days before her murder, she had made light of hateful online comments targeting her as the two flipped through social media. “It was all water off a duck’s back for her,” Dixon remembers.

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Jo Cox — a refugee advocate, former Oxfam leader, and popular member of British Parliament — was attacked on June 16, 2016, a week before Britain’s vote to leave the European Union. She had opposed Brexit; her killer, Thomas Mair, saw EU membership as an existential threat. “This is for Britain,” witnesses said he yelled as he shot Cox three times and stabbed her 15 times.

Dixon and other friends of Cox gathered the next day and determined to find something redemptive in the tragedy. That led to a GoFundMe campaign that raised more than $1 million in less than 24 hours and nearly $3 million altogether. Some of that cash helped launch the Jo Cox Foundation, and Dixon and others later founded the nonprofit More in Common. The name was a nod to Cox’s first speech before Parliament.

“We are far more united and have far more in common with each other than things that divide us,” she had said.

Today, More in Common, which Dixon leads, helps political leaders and social-change movements find the language and strategies to strengthen their coalitions by including unlikely allies. It has teams in Brazil, Britain, France, Germany, Poland, and the United States.

“We need leaders across society who actually can see there is a hopeful way through,” Dixon says. “You can transcend the divisions. You don’t have to pick a side. You need to define a different common-ground approach. You need to have courage in doing that.”

Courtesy of More in Common

More in Common is one of scores of nonprofits devoted to Cox’s premise that we are more united than we think. Extreme or “toxic” polarization, they contend, supercharges differences and fuels perceptions that people on the other side are evil mortal enemies. It turns toxic the disagreement that’s essential for a healthy democracy, spurring those already inclined to anger and violence to act.

“Political violence is sort of the extreme manifestation” of toxic polarization, says Peter Coleman, a social psychologist at Columbia University and author of The Way Out: How to Overcome Toxic Polarization. “Not everybody will become violent, but it does increase the odds of violence and the numbers of those who will commit violence.”

Authorities are still investigating the facts and motive of the shooting at former President Donald Trump’s rally on Saturday. Some previous presidential assassination attempts had little to do with politics; John Hinckley shot President Ronald Reagan in 1981 in a bid to impress actress Jodie Foster.

If the attack turns out to be politically motivated, it will fit a pattern, Dixon and others say. “As shocking as this was, it wasn’t surprising,” says Shamil Idriss, CEO of Search for Common Ground, an international peacebuilding group that began working in the United States in 2021. “Almost a year ago, many of us were talking about how surprised we were that we hadn’t seen more actual political violence, given all of the trend lines and the things that we track everywhere from Myanmar to Texas.”

Saturday’s failed assassination attempt, Dixon and others say, offers a wake-up call to stop the cycle in which violence begets more violence. “These tragic moments do sort of force conversations. This is an opportunity for us to change the music.”

Philanthropy Into the Breach?

Critics contend fears of polarization and its effects are overblown. America’s history, they say, includes periods of intense division as well as episodes of political assassination and violence.

Polling suggests the majority of Americans are worried by the country’s divisions. And they see a role for nonprofits to close divides and make partners of enemies, according to a survey commissioned by the Walton Family Foundation last fall.

An Australian trained as a lawyer and economist, Dixon created a successful publishing company and has helped start social movement organizations working on modern-day slavery, economic inequality, gun control, and other issues. He has also served as a speechwriter and economics adviser for two prime ministers of Australia.

After its launch, More in Common tested ways to realize Jo Cox’s vision with tactics that varied from street parties to big national events. Ultimately, it settled into conducting behavioral science and psychological research to explore how people of all political stripes view issues — Covid public-health measures, climate change, immigration — and where they might find common ground.

Its 2018 report “The Hidden Tribes of America” found that two-thirds of Americans are fed up with red-blue strife — a group it called “the exhausted majority,” a term now almost ubiquitous in polarization discussions.

‘You Can’t Sidestep Polarization’

The Chronicle spoke with Dixon twice — once several months before the shooting at the Trump rally and once shortly after. Here are excerpts on various topics from these conversations, with Dixon’s comments edited for brevity and clarity.

The Trump rally shooting

“Conflict experts tell you that there’s a peak of violence around election seasons. And here we’ve obviously got the ‘us versus them’ dynamics that are deeply baked in a polarized society. We have a lot of apocalyptic language around this election. And social media creates almost a sense of an audience for performance of acts of violence, which I think is a significant factor that motivates individuals who are disaffected.

“We obviously also have just the crisis of disconnection and loneliness and the lack of belonging. All of those factors are often part of the story for lone actors in violence.”

The effects of pledges of unity

“More important than statements are visualizations. The visual of two opposing leaders standing together is the thing that will surprise people. It will move people, and it will change them.

“That’s what we saw when Jo was murdered. You had the prime minister and the opposition leader standing side by side, the two of them laying a wreath. That was really powerful and surprising. And I think that you can replicate that kind of picture in many different ways.”

Explore ideas, conversations, and solutions for a fractured country.

Polarization’s effect on movements and policy advocacy

“You can’t sidestep polarization. It’s the thing that’s making a lot of philanthropic investments ineffective. I don’t think you can get much change in anything if you don’t build coalitions with unlikely members. You’ve got to have somebody on your team who shouldn’t be there, somebody surprising. Then you can really break through.”

Funding challenges

“Our challenge is demonstrating impact and making that case for impact. Funders sometimes worry about a kind of a ‘boil the oceans’ approach: ‘Oh, this is good what you’re doing. But this is not going to change the temperature.’

“That’s a fair criticism. But those are hard conversations. Many people are making a difference, but the impact may not be observed. Having watched the turns of political cycles in many countries, I have seen people who have engaged with the work and been influenced by the work join the team of the next governor or president.”

Advantages for the United States

“I would note the strength of the common ground in America: the belief in freedom, the belief in liberty, the belief in fairness and equality. They’re actually quite strong, positive, and uniting values that you can appeal to.

“And there’s an innate optimism and hopefulness. It has very strangely disappeared more recently, but I also think it’s possible to recover that.”

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