In the age of highly polarized partisanship – what are y’all doing with folks you respect who devalue your political agenda? Our nation has been able to say “it’s not personal, it’s just politics” but these last two years, we’ve seen national politics become more and more personal. People’s who’ve been previously silent are speaking up and advocating on both sides and what do we do with that? Where does reconciliation fit in? Where is that “romanticized American middle ground?” Where does tolerance fit in? Does tolerance fit in?
I mean… does it??? We’re talking about clean water, equitable schools, health care, living wages, wage equality, civil rights, climate change, gentrification, food deserts, sexual assault, reproductive freedom, race relations, prison, tax and immigration reform, accessibility amongst other crucial issues that impact us every day. The political is inherently personal… so what do you do?
Do you become apathetic? Do you educate others? Do you try to hear the other side? How do you engage/contract/react?
Or taking it even further:
What do you do when your childhood friends, religious associates or family are the ones engaged in (what you perceive as) harmful political rhetoric?
And what will all of this mean for the upcoming elections we’ve all been inundated with information about voter registration but without public discourse about our local and national moral compass and honest dialogue among communities, I really don’t know what to expect…