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Whitewater rafters with differing politics aim to bridge the partisan divide on Nantahala River trip
On the western edge of the battleground state of North Carolina cuts the Nantahala River and an unlikely spot for an experiment in reconciliation.
About 30 Americans went there to navigate the Nantahala on rafts while probing the limits of political estrangement. They are liberals and conservatives, independents and libertarians — sure to oppose one another on all manner of ideas and issues.
But they’re also willing to talk and paddle together toward something deeper.
Ken Powley, an experienced rafter who worries deeply about American alienation, organized the trip as part of R.A.F.T. for America, a movement that brings people who have different perspectives together on rafting trips. Its parent organization, Team Democracy, was co-founded by Powley with the aim of countering political polarization and encouraging civility.
“As Americans we really are in the same boat together,” Powley said. “I’m the guy that always thought of democracy like the air you breathe. It’s always gonna be there.”
Powley set about this work the day after the Capitol insurrection, when he decided to devote his retirement years to binding our political wounds — or at least trying to.
The essence of the experiment?
“Bringing people together with different points of view has become difficult. What we’re finding is what unites us is a lot more powerful than what separates us,” Powley said.
The Rev. Rodney Sadler, a self-described liberal from Charlotte who’s “not fond of Trump at all,” came along for the ride. He landed in the same boat as conservative Lance Moseley, a traveling public relations professional who lives out of an RV.
“I don’t understand why everybody’s so afraid of Trump. He’s better for the country. That’s my view,” Moseley said.
Lance and Sadler found things chilly at first, and so did everyone on their boat.
The rafts made their way down the rapids of the Nantahala with teamwork and enthusiasm. Along the way, attitudes found new ways around the rocks and turbulence, both real and metaphorical.
“Everybody’s closer to each other than we think,” Moseley said.
Sadler responded, “No matter who we might vote for or anything else, I think this is a great first step.”
Near the end, choppy waters tossed one rafter harmlessly overboard. A day on the river ended up bringing Sadler and Moseley closer together.
“I think we are so divided that we don’t get to spend the time to get to know people as human beings,” Sadler said.
“By the end of the trip we were finally talking deeper politics,” Moseley said.
Perhaps cynics will find this all a bit too tidy, but Powley says, “This is not about unity.”
“This is not about changing people’s positions, trying to get them to agree. It’s about managing those differences in a reasonably responsible way,” Powley said. “This isn’t really about rafting. The point of it is when we play together, it allows us to form relationships we would otherwise never even consider.”
For Powley, a river runs through that noble pursuit.
“It does touch me, because it’s so crystal clear that we are so much better than what we’re showing,” he said.
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Three Major banks and Zelle rushed to bring a peer-to-peer payment network to market without first ensuring users would be protected against “widespread” fraud, alleges a lawsuit filed on Friday by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo ignored customer complaints related to Zelle, users losing hundreds of millions of dollars in scams, the regulatory agency alleges. Zelle is run by Early Warning Services, which is owned by the three banks named in the CFPB’s suit, along with four other financial institutions.
According to the CFPB, bank customers have lost more than $870 million over the seven years Zells has been in operation. Early Warning and the three banks named in the complaint hastily created the payments network to head off rival payment apps including Venmo and CashApp without adequately protecting end users, the suit alleges.
“The nation’s largest banks felt threatened by competing apps, so they rushed to put out Zelle,” Rohit Chopra, the CFPB’s director, said in a statement. “By their failing to put in place proper safeguards, Zelle became a gold mine for fraudsters, while often leaving victims to fends for themselves.”
Zelle blasted the CFPB’s accusations as “legally and factually flawed,” with a spokesperson also suggesting the timing of the suit as “driven by political factors unrelated” to the company.
JPMorgan also accused the agency of pursuing a “political agenda,” stating that the agency was “overreaching its authority by making banks accountable for criminals, even including romance scammers.”
JPMorgan Chase said it prevents nearly $20 billion in fraud attempts each year, and that 99.95% of its transactions are completed without dispute.
A spokesperson for Wells Fargo declined to comment. Bank of America did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Offered by more than 2,200 banks and credit unions, Zelle has more than 143 million users in the U.S., according to the suit. Customers transferred a total of $481 billion in conducting 1.7 billion transactions during the first half of 2024, the CFPB noted.
Hundreds of thousands of customers filed fraud complaints and were denied assistance by Zelle and the three banks, according to the suit, which noted that some people were advised to contact those behind the fraud to get their money back.
Zelle “has been slow to implement anti-fraud measures, including closing accounts accused of fraud,” Jaret Seiberg, an analyst with TD Cowen Washington Research Group, said in a report, pointing to the CFPB’s allegations. “It also permitted the registration of emails that were impersonating legitimate entities, including Zelle itself.”
Since Zelle launched in 2017, according to the CFPB, JPMorgan Chase received 420,00 customer complaints involving more than $360 million; Bank of America heard from 210,000 customers with more than $290 million in fraud losses; and Wells Fargo tallied $220 million in fraud losses by 280,000 people.
In 2023 Early Warning began refunding money to an undisclosed number of fraud victims amid pressure from lawmakers. In late 2022, Sen. Elizabeth Warren issued a report that found increasing incidents of fraud and scams to be occurring on the popular payment app, with large banks typically reluctant to compensate victims, the Massachusetts Democrat said.
