You don’t have to, but some of us must engage those we should abhor because of their ideological stance. This country’s survival depends on it.
Beyond the choir: Let’s stop doing the same thing.
It is said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. In this regard, being in a constant state of polarization is insanity. I put myself in a position to engage people of opposing ideologies virtually every day. It used to be very stressful internally, but over time, it has created a skin-thickening that has allowed me to give an inordinate grace and compassion to listen to the other side, whether it is talking to MAGA, Conservatives, Evangelicals, White Nationals, and permutations of all or any of them, or challenging them always after listening first.
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To be clear, I am not asking that every progressive attempt to meet MAGA where they are. In fact, I am not even placing judgment on those who refuse. Why? Because it would not be fair. That said, some of us must do so lest we will never recover from the path of decline we are on, that is, allowing the puppeteering of President Trump into autocracy.
Engaging the other side is fraught with disappointment. Even after appealing to common humanity and seemingly changing their mind and hearts, recidivism rates remain high. Human nature tends to revert to its original form unless a traumatic trigger has caused the change. And that is where we are now. And we must make lemonade out of these lemons.
Trump and his cabal are literally selling out the country. In doing so, the results of their policies will affect every American. More importantly, it will affect MAGA and Red States much more than it will the rest of the country. It will be traumatic as they get an outcome they thought would be solely relegated to those undesirable liberals. And that is the crack that those of us who are willing to take the flak as we build a sufficient level of trust to engage must break through.
Above and beyond doing that work since my days as a board member of the now-defunct Coffee Party USA, a transpartisan organization, I work with those who are also interested in doing this type of engagement. I even try to blend the techniques in my activist journalism and in talking to the right, even on my radio/media shows.
While many castigate me—” Egberto, we need to expend that energy on getting out our own vote,” they say—I disagree. We must do both. The sad reality is that sometimes it is easier to flip a person who has a propensity to vote than to count on those who generally do not vote. And again, the pain Trump is inflicting on voting MAGA has opened cracks to give us entry if we choose to go in.
I choose to visit their space, engaging respectfully and civilly without compromising my progressive values, as I lay out a clear path for them to realize that the policies we support are more in line with their wants and needs than the polarized visions they have. This action is not mutually exclusive from informing and activating our own base.
A caller to my KPFT 90.1 FM radio show asked the prescient question. Why should we have compassion for all these people who voted for Trump or stayed home, given that Trump is doing everything he said he would? Rather than blame them, I pointed out a reality that I have accepted for myself. We had not informed convincingly or made the case. Instead of blaming, which I also do periodically in my weaker moments, we must continue to try tactics that meet them where they are and reach them. We will be unsuccessful with the immutable, but there are enough who can become rational when removed from their echo-chambered bubble.
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