Americans, Can You Clarify? Is There Hope?

Asked in earnest, with some trepidation

As a researcher, suspending judgement was key. A lot of work went into each data collection, just to be able to show up with a clear mind as a person welcoming to all information the world and the people in it had to offer.

I questioned my positionality. Who am I? What is my identity, privilege, and perspective? What is my experience and belief system, especially when it overlaps with what I am studying?

I vetted relevancy and language choice when creating questions for interview subjects and environmental observation.

I did my homework, researching my data collection environment and conditions, and knowing outcomes of previous studies.

And then I suspended all of that to be present, clearly experiencing a place, listening to a human, ready to learn more.

It was a great privilege of my life. I was honored and fascinated by what strangers were telling me. My work was just to understand, just to make sure I heard every word in its entirety, in its context, and to record it for history.

I didn’t have to think of how I felt about it (though, of course, sometimes I did feel things about what was being said). I didn’t think about a counterargument or a clever response. I didn’t even have to problem solve and work out some kind of solution to the dilemmas presented to me. In fact, I couldn’t say something, even if I had an impulse that I had an answer or valuable tidbit of information.

People shared generously, and they always surprised me in some way. I always learned.

Now, I find myself longing for that kind of connection with others. When it comes to divisions in today’s political landscape, statistics and hot takes just aren’t enough. I want to understand more, because I am truly baffled.

I think partly because of this, I find myself eavesdropping at coffee shops, examining interactions in traffic jams, and listening to very rough-cut podcasts from disparate corners of the conservation field.

I look at old high school friends’ social accounts to find where we diverged, where our interpretations of right and wrong led us into different political worlds. Or vice versa. Sometimes, I have to hold myself back from dialing up my uncle or cousin and just asking.

But there is a key barrier to me learning and understanding, a part of me I know wouldn’t pass muster with academic standards for research.

I already have my conclusion: no matter how much we might have in common, or how much I may be sympathetic with some conditions people on the opposite side of the aisle have, I believe they are inexcusably wrong.

Whether their key issue is immigration, economy, abortion, or education, I know the arguments from the Right already. I have yet to find one that checks out.

And from where I stand, racism, sexism, xenophobia, and greed define the GOP’s political platform. For most voters, enacting policy that embodies these sentiments overrides their own basic self-interest and ignores valid research. Evidence of this ideology is abundant in all the cruelty visible in this year’s political moves.

Evidence of it not working is abundant today.

So, what is the question I am asking? What am I looking for when I want to connect with and better understand the other side?

It must be a hope of some sort. I think it’s some mix of stubborn optimism and desperate need.

Will they change their minds? What will be the turning point? Will they have the capacity to reconcile their role in the horrors that are unfolding now?

And what about me? Can I forgive, and can I understand enough to move on?

Or do we just continue as we are, living in vastly different realities, shutting off part of ourselves and our world in the process?

I think those are the questions I really wrestle with, the ones I don’t have a good answer to. They may be the ones I could ask and listen with appreciation and openness. Ready to learn and ponder.

Hanging on to the moment of possibility in which they would care to do the same.

Today, I content myself with watching the signs, and reading them in a way that shows the progress that is happening. Republicans are losing races all over. Protests for protecting the land, human rights, and democracy are growing. Approval ratings for Trump-aligned policies have collapsed.

With all this data showing a change of voter sentiment, I can trust that a shift in culture is happening to an extent. Somewhere, right now, someone is wondering why they were so passionately supportive of this administration, maybe even questioning their worldview and belief system. Maybe someday they’ll even admit it.

I am not waiting, not expecting to find peace by demanding answers in that scenario. But I sure am dreaming of the moment when I am open, with suspended judgement, ready to find resolution in my world. And when my world shares it with me so generously.

With love and hope for the future,

Stephanie

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Do you want to know anything about what is going on with voters who elected Trump? What are you curious (or not) about? What connection are you missing?