No automatic midpoint
The right answer is not presumed to be halfway between two partisan positions. Sometimes evidence may favor one approach strongly; sometimes values produce legitimate disagreement.
A different kind of political coalition
Different politics. Shared standards.
Cross-partisan does not mean politically empty. It means people can retain real ideological differences while agreeing on standards for integrity, evidence, institutions, stewardship, and results.
You can belong without fitting a box.
A CIVERGE member might be fiscally conservative and environmentally progressive; socially liberal and economically conservative; supportive of major public investment but demanding about measurable outcomes; or skeptical of government expansion while strongly defending effective public institutions.
They may identify with a political party—or none at all.
RepublicanDemocraticIndependentLibertarianConservativeLiberalModerateUnaffiliated
What cross-partisan means
Cooperation without pretending disagreement disappeared.
No ideological immunity
No party, movement, or policy receives a permanent exemption from scrutiny. Ideas should face the same questions regardless of who proposes them.
No enemy requirement
Political opponents can be wrong, frustrating, or deeply opposed to us without becoming enemies whose participation in public life is inherently illegitimate.
Civic participation
Public life is larger than party identity.
Recent Pew Research Center work on civic engagement found people across both major parties participate in public life in many similar ways, alongside citizens who engage primarily through community, religion, news, or other civic channels. CIVERGE is designed to make room for that broader civic identity.
Background: Pew Research Center, How Americans Engage With News, Politics, Religion and Civic Life.