Andrew Shue is betting that ordinary citizens are less divided than the political system representing them. The New Hampshire Forum will be tested when the talking stops.
During Kevin Smith’s 2022 campaign for the United States Senate, he made what one consultant apparently considered a serious mistake. Smith suggested that voters might want elected officials to compromise.
The consultant pulled him aside and told him never to use the word compromise again. Smith remembers thinking, “Man, this is what is wrong in our politics today.”¹
The advice was cynical, but it probably wasn’t irrational. We’ve built a political system that rewards conflict. Candidates raise money by frightening us about the other side. Social media keeps us clicking by making every disagreement feel existential. A politician who works with the opposition risks being challenged by someone who won’t.
Andrew Shue is now spending serious money to find out whether that consultant was right about voters—or merely right about the political business.
Most people remember Shue as Billy Campbell on Melrose Place. That’s the easy introduction, but it isn’t why his latest project deserves attention. Shue also co-founded the youth-service organization DoSomething and has spent years working on civic participation and political reform.²
His latest effort is The Forum, a privately financed project operating in New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. Here, Republican Kevin Smith and former Democratic state Senate president Donna Soucy are leading the effort.