I really do get this. But I think the reality is that it really isn’t that hard to find common ground. The Trump voters I know are husbands, fathers, music lovers, etc. just like me; they’re trying to raise families, trying to make ends meet, trying to give their kids a good future, etc. Some are coworkers, extended family members, etc. What’s hard isn’t finding common ground; what’s hard is being objective and humble enough to understand that common ground doesn’t wash away just because uncommon ground becomes visible. Which, of course, is why we do what’s easy instead — typecasting, name calling, going to online forums full of people who think and feel the same way we do (whether that’s a place like RM, or Truth Social, or a Facebook account where everyone we disagree with politically has been unfriended or blocked) and getting quick and easy validation from echo chambers of our own curation.spike wrote:Just really hard to find common ground with folks who voted in a convicted felon, racist, misogynist, con artist, etc. You have to question their judgement of character, and thus, their own character.
I guess I'm just not sure, in a world where we refuse to acknowledge this common ground -- where we refuse to seek understanding beyond our own narrative that everyone who disagrees with us is simply a one-dimensional idiot and/or villain -- what the way forward is. It seems like, in that world, the best case scenario is that we keep having elections that are decided by relatively narrow margins in a handful of states, engaging in an endless tug of war of marginal gains and losses where one administration temporarily enacts legislation that is undermined when an opposing administration takes office, while members of the non-incumbent party stew and seethe and further entrench themselves in inflexible ways of thinking, which are no doubt repeatedly reinforced in whatever bias-confirming comfort zone they have built for themselves. We can all use our imaginations as to what the worst-case scenario is.
I don't know. I really do understand that it's hard, and I empathize with everyone who is angry, scared, and sad right now. It just seems clear to me that what's easy isn't producing the desired outcome.
