I grew up in a one stoplight town. A last bastion of the Wild West tucked in the shadow of Pikes Peak, the mountain that inspired ‘America the Beautiful.’ It is a place where everybody knows your name. A town that features a hitching post at the local bar. A community where everybody goes to the High School football game on a Friday night. It is a slice of the American pie. In my hometown there was one African American family and one Mexican family. That was the diversity. Not one Muslim. Not one Jew. Nobody who was openly gay. It is filled with families who came West at some point for freedom and fresh air. And in this election people in my hometown voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump.
After graduation I moved around the world – Florence, London and then New York City. I met people who were different than me. I worked for the “liberal media.” I crisscrossed the country covering stories in places like Texarkana and Waukesha, Wisconsin. I consumed other pieces of the American pie. And I learned a lot.
Eventually I moved back to Colorado to be closer to my family. I have now settled into the suburbs. To a place where the local High School has half as many people as my entire hometown. Where the football stadium holds ten times my hometown’s population on any given Sunday. I am a suburban soccer mom living in a county that voted for Hillary Clinton.
Last night I listened as my neighbors ask – “How? How could this happen? How could Trump have won?” And it really made me think.
These two towns are in the same state and only about an hour apart. Yet the dichotomy has been amplified by this incredibly polarizing election. As a journalist my job is to listen to different opinions. And over the past 18 months I have listened. I have listened to my friends and family, people I grew up with, people I went to college with. I have spoken at length with political pundits on both sides of the aisle. When I have opened my ears and my heart I have found an understanding of different views.
People in my hometown are not racist. They are not stupid. They have different values and goals than my suburban neighbors or my NYC colleagues. They moved West to get away from the government and do not feel like the system is on their side. They value family above all else. My suburban neighbors still value family but they also value diversity and education. They are surprised that someone who made such terrible comments about Muslims, blacks and women could be elected. But in their hearts everyone wants the same thing – what is best for their families and their country.
The problem is that not enough people listen to each other. We do not hear each other’s complaints. We surround ourselves with like-minded people and then are surprised when there are people with differing opinions. People in this country were united by one thing – a distaste for government. All kinds of people feel left out by the system. The first step to healing this divide is to listen and learn from each other. You may find that there is more that unites us than divides us.