{"id":2745,"date":"2024-10-23T21:55:07","date_gmt":"2024-10-23T21:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/?p=2745"},"modified":"2025-03-11T13:19:12","modified_gmt":"2025-03-11T13:19:12","slug":"how-young-leaders-are-helping-bridge-divides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/2024\/10\/23\/how-young-leaders-are-helping-bridge-divides\/","title":{"rendered":"How Young Leaders Are Helping Bridge Divides"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIn this very moment where it feels very tempting to disengage and to just tune out and say, politics and \u2014 we&#8217;re just too divided, it&#8217;s too hopeless, we&#8217;re actually seeing young people run towards the problem, running for office, not running away from it.\u201d<\/span><\/i><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/i><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0 \u00a0 \u2014 <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Layla Zaidane on the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">12 Geniuses<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> podcast<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this episode of 12 Geniuses, Layla Zaidane, CEO of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/futurecaucus.org\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Future Caucus<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, discusses the importance of young leaders in addressing political polarization and building a brighter, less divided future.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Layla Zaidane: The Future of American Democracy\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yXlejICh5X8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Layla explains that, despite our current political toxicity, many young people choose to actively run for office and bridge divides rather than disengage from politics. Through her role at Future Caucus, she supports these leaders by fostering bipartisan collaboration across the country.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWhat Future Caucus does is we try to build community for lawmakers. Just like I was looking for belonging when I was growing up, that&#8217;s what we do for young lawmakers, whether you&#8217;re a Democrat, a Republican, an independent, or something else, you all share a generational identity.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Layla also discusses the importance of democracy, which she defines as not just election-related, but as the way in which communities come together to make decisions while respecting diverse perspectives.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt really is about all of us and the ways in which we have processes to make decisions, to share resources, to do something, to build something. That, to me, is why American democracy has endured.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She sees hope in the next generation\u2019s commitment to addressing their divides through collaboration, despite America\u2019s challenges and historical conflicts. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Layla outlines three main drivers of polarization:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Structural issues<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Social factors like echo chambers, and<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cConflict entrepreneurs\u201d who exploit divisions for personal gain<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Her group Future Caucus aims to counter these trends by empowering young leaders to set new norms of cooperation and transparency.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=7mwojVS-Sqohttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=yXlejICh5X8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Watch this <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">12 Geniuses<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> episode now<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Want to stay in the loop about efforts to overcome our toxic divides? <\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/join\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sign up for our newsletter<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cIn this very moment where it feels very tempting to disengage and to just tune out and say, politics and \u2014 we&#8217;re just too divided, it&#8217;s too hopeless, we&#8217;re actually seeing young people run towards the problem, running for office, not running away from it.\u201d \u00a0 \u00a0 \u2014 Layla Zaidane on the 12 Geniuses podcast&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":2746,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"collection_feed":[],"type_feed":[72],"class_list":["post-2745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - 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