As Nov. 5 approached, I felt a creeping sense of unwavering dread as I waded through murky social media waters that have only gotten more polluted in the aftermath of the election.
I am a student in one of the bluest states in the country. I have lived my whole life in Massachusetts and I am studying journalism. It is only natural that my life somehow became a reverberating room that solidified my hope that the United States would see the first female president this term.
The American people have spoken to bring President-elect Donald Trump back to power, and many did not see it coming because there has been an isolation of perspectives on both ends.
Our country has sustained a lack of both party’s political consideration over the past decade. Everyone has tuned each other out and it has made it easier to ignore each other’s strife as a consequence.
Our country is losing sympathy for each other’s fears. It is scary to be a woman, to be part of the LGBTQ+ community, to be an immigrant or a person of color. These fears are harbored deep within groups that Trump has made no offer of safety in his embrace as a leader. On the other hand, we must recognize that people’s fears about economic stability, safety within the country, and foreign considerations are very real to those whose votes were placed with these emotions in mind.
Whether or not you believe that these votes were misplaced in a candidate who does not have their best interest in mind, the solution cannot be further isolating a group detached from your mentality. It may feel uncomplicated and warranted to claim these people have no place in your life. They didn’t listen to your concerns so why should you give their perspective on the time of day? It may feel fruitless but now is not the time to concede the conversation with the very minds that must be changed.
Nothing can be accomplished if the side so bound in virtue continues down the same path that had the Trump campaign driving away millions from his ideas. Estranging from community members whose lived experience is just as real and true as yours is how the Harris campaign and supporters lost the key voters it did. By being unwavering in anger and unsympathetic rhetoric, both sides continue to drive each other further into echo chambers that only reiterate the harmful ideas we are trying to combat.
Vilifying your opposers does not force them into reconsideration, but encourages them to recontextualize the ideas you stand behind. Our country has shifted focus to what each vote conveys it’s against versus what is for. This oversimplifies our voices and how we use them in these elections.
It may feel hostile and hollow to continue dialogues that have persevered since 2016 with what feels like no minds changing. Harris said in her concession speech, “This is not a time to throw up our hands. This is a time to roll up our sleeves.” This does not just mean in political activism but in sentiments that will be exchanged between real people.
The difficult conversations must continue to happen. By asking those who voted opposing your rights and freedoms to disengage via social media and in your life, you push away the people who need to see and hear your struggle most. The democratic party will lose every potential voter whose mind they must change over the next four years if we disengage from the burdensome conversation.
Let politics impact your relationship, but don’t let it end them. Remember that beneath exterior actions that negatively impact you, there is a lived experience that you cannot comprehend. It is tuning out of individual experience that has diminished empathy across our country. See in others what you wish they would see in the unique life you have led.
Beyond the belligerent hate that perpetuates both parties, there are far more upstanding Americans whose ideas are worth hearing.
It is within these dialogues that I hope all Americans can rejoice in the realization that we are all deserving of more than a felon for President.
