Now, not all disagreements between us are civil; not everyone I met on my travels was kind. Some enthusiastic Trump supporters told me, "Obama should go back to where he came from" and other bigoted remarks—but these were few and far between. The vast majority of conservative folks were choosing between begrudgingly voting for Trump or not voting for president at all. And some had come over to team Hillary Clinton. Even a woman I'll call Georgie, from Mobile, Alabama, who said she had been an early and dedicated "Trumpette" had lost all enthusiasm for the man—though she still planned to tick his box come November. What had been the moment things turned? "I don't know. He just kept talking," she told me.
There is undeniable hatred out there, undeniable ugliness that has been stirred up by this election—we saw some of that at Trump's rallies, and see some of it now in the frighteningly frequent reports of hate crimes and harassment. But these atrocious acts are committed by a small, but very vocal, minority, and do not represent the totality of the 47 percent of voters who picked Trump. [...]
According to the latest data from the United States, just over 58 percent of eligible Americans voted, meaning turnout has not dropped relative to recent presidential elections. Still, over four in ten of us declined to participate despite both parties proclaiming this the most important election of all time. More people did not vote than voted for either candidate. [...]
Even on social issues like LGBTQ rights, there are signs that Americans are more united than we typically think. Many conservatives I spoke to on the redder side would prefer that our legal unions (and I say "our" because I'm gay) be called civil, not marriage, but still, they thought our relationships deserved legal sanction and protection, which is not nothing. [...]
It seems to me that more than anything, what makes the divisions between us so stark is that we hear different narratives, are making decisions and assumptions based on entirely different sets of facts. Some people blame this divide on websites that spread hoaxes through social media, others blame partisan cable news—and there's certainly merits to both claims—but the country's media has always been somewhat split along party and regional lines. That is unlikely to change anytime soon.
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