On October 22, BigTentUSA hosted a thought-provoking conversation with Kerry Kennedy, President of ‪@rfkhumanrights‬ and ‪@SenatorChrisMurphy‬ (D-CT), moderated by ‪@bulwarkmedia‬’s Sam Stein.

Rather than focusing solely on policy reform, the speakers explored how decades of broken promises from both Democrats and Republicans — coupled with the lack of a shared understanding of what it truly means to be American — have fueled the intolerance underlying today’s immigration crisis. They reflected on how this erosion of shared values has weakened trust in institutions and deepened divisions across the country.

The discussion also examined the broader democratic moment, from the real-world impact of the ongoing government shutdown to the growing threats posed by authoritarianism. Kennedy and Murphy emphasized that lasting progress depends not only on government action but on the collective power of citizens and civil society organizations to push for accountability and justice.

It was an illuminating and deeply human conversation — a call to restore our sense of common purpose and to harness the power of civic engagement in defense of democracy and human rights.

Learn more about RFK Human Rights: https://rfkhumanrights.org/

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Kerry Kennedy is president of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, where she partners with courageous activists around the world to advance justice and human dignity. A human rights lawyer and author of the New York Times bestsellers Being Catholic Now and Speak Truth to Power, Kennedy has spent more than four decades championing causes from women’s rights and criminal justice reform to freedom of expression and environmental justice. The seventh child of Ethel and Robert F. Kennedy, she has led hundreds of human rights delegations globally and appears frequently as a commentator and contributor in national media. Kennedy serves on the boards of the U.S. Institute of Peace and the Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation, among others, and has received numerous international honors for her advocacy. She is a graduate of Brown University and Boston College Law School and the proud mother of three daughters.

Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT), the junior United States Senator from Connecticut, has dedicated his career to public service as an advocate for Connecticut families. Senator Murphy has been a strong voice in the Senate fighting for job creation, affordable health care, education, sensible gun laws, and a forward-looking foreign policy. Senator Murphy is a consensus builder and many times throughout his political career has worked to bridge the political divide. He led a bipartisan effort to reform the mental health system, working across the aisle to craft the first comprehensive mental health bill in the Senate in decades. Following the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school in 2012, Senator Murphy became one of the leading proponents of commonsense reforms to reduce gun violence. He has championed a number of bipartisan bills aimed at expanding background checks and keeping guns out of the hands of criminals. And most recently, he was the lead Democratic negotiator of the breakthrough bipartisan border reform agreement.

Sam Stein is managing editor for The Bulwark. Prior to then he was Deputy Managing Editor for Politics at Politico. He held similar posts at both The Daily Beast and HuffPost, where he founded the site’s D.C. bureau. He has been a longtime contributor on MSNBC. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College, where he met his wife!

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