The second most popular option was “involving more than one million Americans in a national discussion of an important public issue and requiring Congress to respond to what the citizens say.” This proposal had been developed by AmericaSpeaks and was endorsed by John Edwards during the presidential primary campaign.12 Eighty percent favored this idea, including 64% strongly. Fourteen percent opposed it, 7 percent strongly. Again, support was bipartisan, with 60% of Republicans strongly in favor, compared to 70% of Democrats.

In our 2007 America’s Civic Health Index report, we identified people as “deliberators” if they had “been involved in a meeting (either face-to-face or online) to determine ideas and solutions for problems” and if that discussion included people who held views different from their own. We found that 18 percent of Americans had been involved in such open-ended, practical discussions with people of diverse views. These deliberators proved to be especially committed to civic engagement and tended to be older than average. When we asked this year about a large, official, national deliberation, support was strong across all demographic groups, but relatively less so among the elderly, those without any college background, and men (as compared to women). It would appear that while the elderly were the most likely to deliberate, the Millennials were most enthusiastic about a new opportunity to do so. African Americans were the most supportive of all racial/ ethnic groups.