Cautious hope is warranted, maybe.

I listen to James Talarico’s victory speech as I write tonight, on the advice of two friends who referenced it after reading last night’s post. See highlights quoted below.

I spoke with both Blue and Red voting friends today. The primary shared sentiment is a profound desire for the bickering and ideological warfare to end, for legislators to finally sit down and work together to solve problems (Iran, economy, healthcare) and make policy that will reliably outlive their terms in office. We want stability in government, upright character at the helm in each governmental entity (though most of us are still skeptical of this dream), and relief from the politics of hate. Across the voting spectrum, nobody I know wants time, energy, or resources wasted on frivolous, performative, vengeful retaliation from either side. Legislators have a chance, a narrow window of oppourtunity, so show they can actually legislate at all meaingfully–to ‘get sh*t done’.

Talarico’s speech sounds optimistic and hopeful, but it’s easy to cheerlead for your own team. He preaches about love and bridging, and I believe he is sincere. I believe he has the skills and conviction the Senate needs. But holy cow, the headwinds he will face. I have commented on various platforms today, “May he withstand and resist the forces that test this conviction. May we all step up to uphold and amplify. This will be a test for us all.”

So how will we rise to the challenge? How crazy that I did not include Mónica Guzmán’s book I Never Thought of It That Way among my recommendations last night? She is a force of nature for curiosity, humility, openness, learning, sitting with the discomfort of disagreement and even conflict, and walking the talk. I’m glad I can devote an entire post to encouraging us all to study her approach and method for bridging across differences. I listened early last year and would benefit from a repeat of study.

From her website:
“We think we have the answers, but we need to be asking a lot more questions. Journalist Mónica Guzmán is the loving liberal daughter of Mexican immigrants who voted—twice—for Donald Trump. When the country could no longer see straight across the political divide, Mónica set out to find what was blinding us and discovered the most eye-opening tool we’re not using: our own built-in curiosity.​
“Partisanship is up, trust is down, and our social media feeds make us sure we’re right and everyone else is ignorant (or worse). But avoiding one another is hurting our relationships and our society. In this timely, personal guide, Mónica, the chief storyteller for the national cross-partisan depolarization organization Braver Angels, takes you to the real front lines of a crisis that threatens to grind America to a halt—broken conversations among confounded people.
“She shows you how to overcome the fear and certainty that surround us to finally do what only seems impossible: understand and even learn from people in your life whose whole worldview is different from or even opposed to yours.
“Drawing from cross-partisan conversations she’s had, organized, or witnessed everywhere from the echo chambers on social media to the wheat fields in Oregon to raw, unfiltered fights with her own family on election night, Mónica shows how you can put your natural sense of wonder to work for you immediately, finding the answers you need by talking with people—rather than about them—and asking the questions you want, curiously.
In these pages, you’ll learn:

• How to ask what you really want to know (even if you’re afraid to)
• How to grow smarter from even the most tense interactions, online or off
• How to cross boundaries and find common ground—with anyone

​”Whether you’re left, right, center, or not a fan of labels: If you’re ready to fight back against the confusion, heartbreak, and madness of our dangerously divided times—in your own life, at least—Mónica’s got the tools and fresh, surprising insights to prove that seeing where people are coming from isn’t just possible. It’s easier than you think.”

I know not everybody is ready to connect with folks who voted the other way.
But if you have any inkling to try, if you can imagine any scenario in which you could possibly muster even the smallest effort, this book could boost your morale exponentially. Read it with a likeminded friend. Challenge each other to embrace some discomfort in service of narrowing the political chasms in your own lives. Relationships take work. We are all in relationship, like it or not. How much better could it be if we all stepped forth and exercised our civic responsibility to uphold a civil society?

We elect officials to lead us. But we must lead them in return. Accountability for the state of the union lands on each of us in our daily attitudes and interactions, not just on election day.

c

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Talarico victory speech highlights:
“We just proved that all the money in the world is no match for the people of Texas. We just showed that a politics of division is no match for a politics of love.
“We went up against more than $300 million, more than any Senate campaign in American history. We went up against all the negative ads, smear campaigns, foreign bots and AI deep fakes that money can buy. Those attacks were the final howls of a dying establishment. The death rattle of a status quo that knows its days are numbered.
“We built a movement unlike any this state has ever seen. We united Texans from all backgrounds and beliefs onto one team to take on this broken, corrupt political system. First time voters, three time Trump voters, working people from every corner of this state who are fed up and ready for change.
“To the Texans who supported this movement, I am humbled by your trust and I will work every day to be worthy of it. And to the Texans who didn’t vote for me, I will be your senator too. I will always serve you. I will always fight for you. This win is not about the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. It’s much bigger than that.
“My granddad was a Baptist preacher in South Texas, and when I was little, he told me that we follow a barefoot rabbi who gave us two commandments, love God and love neighbor, because there is no love of God without love of neighbor.
“Because despite our differences, we all want the same things; a safe neighborhood, a good job, a high quality, well-funded public school, and the ability to see a doctor when we need one. But the billionaires who own the social media algorithms, who own the cable news networks, who own the politicians fighting on our screens, they want us at each other’s throats. They want us focused on how we’re different instead of on how we’re the same. They want us looking left and right at each other instead of looking up at them.
“The real fight in this country is not left versus right. It is top versus bottom. The people at the top work so hard to keep us angry and divided, because our unity is a threat to their wealth and their power. We saw it in this race. We saw it in every billionaire funded attack ad.
“The people at the top divide us by party, by race, by gender, by religion, by culture, so we don’t notice that they are picking our pockets. That they are defunding our schools, that they are gutting our healthcare, that they are raising taxes on all of us while they cut taxes for themselves. It is the oldest strategy in the world, divide and conquer.
“But tonight we sent a crystal clear message to the people at the top. We will not be conquered. I think it’s safe to say that we are tired of being pitted against each other. We are tired of being told to hate each other. It has been 10 years of this kind of politics, politics as blood sport, politics as trolling and owning, politics as professional wrestling.
“It tears families apart. It ends friendships and it leaves us all feeling terrible all the time. People across the political spectrum are hungry for a different kind of politics. Not a politics of hate, not a politics of fear, not a politics of division, but a politics of love.
“My faith teaches me that love is the strongest force in the universe. Love is not passive. Love is not neutral. Love is not weak. Love requires that we stand between the bullies and the bullied. Love requires that we look evil in the eye and not blink. That kind of love has always been a threat to the powers that be. That kind of love is revolutionary. That kind of love is creative.
“Love can turn a student into a scholar. Love can turn a closet into a nursery. Love can turn an enemy into a friend. Love can turn a campaign into a movement. Love, love can heal what’s broken in America. We can’t defeat the politics of division with more division. We can’t win that game. We have to change the game.
“In my experience, when you extend an open hand rather than a closed fist, you’ll be surprised by who takes that hand. We didn’t win this race by alienating our neighbors, or shaming our neighbors, or ridiculing our neighbors. We embodied a new kind of politics, a politics rooted in a deep love for our state, for our country, and most importantly, for all of our neighbors.”