Building A Bridge To Sanity

Whereupon I befriend Trump canvassers

Photo by Abhinav Bhardwaj on Unsplash

So, last Saturday—like every recent Saturday and continuing every Saturday up through Election Day—I was out on the streets of Philadelphia canvassing for Kamala Harris.

I believe it’s very, very important to defeat Donald Trump.

But, at the same time, I genuinely like people and always look for the good in them—even people who (somehow) like Donald Trump. So, when I saw two middle aged (Or older? I’m age blind.) women wearing red Trump hats waving at me from across the street, I came over.

Fellow canvassers but for the other side.

Welcoming Craziness

Online I have little patience with Trump partisans. I consider them to be a waste of time, at best. But real people in real life—and people who are greeting me—well, that’s different. These are fellow Philadelphians. We have a lot in common.

Now, they were enthusiastic Trump supporters and immediately launched into all the usual tropes peddled by his campaign. They weren’t snowing me—these were true believers. What they were telling me was nonsense or irrelevant or deceptive, but they believed every word.

I found there arguments to be ill-conceived, but their sincerity was the real thing. They weren’t going to change my…