An excellent post, about an organization that I very much admire. An excerpt:
Be willing to make common cause with ideological opponents
As he contemplated the challenges and pitfalls of advocating for abolition, Frederick Douglass began to see that dialogue with those who saw things differently was critical to achieving his goals. When the more stringent and radical abolitionists, whose motto was "No union with slaveholders," criticized Douglass' approach, he famously replied, "I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong."
We can learn a great deal from Douglass' wisdom here. The only way to make real progress is by forming coalitions around specific issues and collaborating, even if we remain deeply divided on other topics. You can't claim to be non-partisan if you only call out one side when they do bad or only praise one side when they do good. You also can't claim to be non-partisan if you won't accept help from or collaborate with your ideological opponents on issues where you actually agree.
And here's the thing: If you are waiting to only ally with a person, a politician, or—worse still—a political party that is never wrong on matters of freedom of speech, you will never partner with anybody. If we're being honest, by that standard you likely wouldn't even be able to partner with yourself….
(Note that I have done a bit of paid consulting for FIRE in the past, and FIRE is representing me pro bono in a couple of cases; I have also supported FIRE's work in the past pro bono on many occasions. I'm passing this along, though, solely because I liked it.)
The post Greg Lukianoff (FIRE) on "Being Non-Partisan in a Partisan Age" appeared first on Reason.com.
