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Love trumps hate. It\u2019s a nice sentiment, but is it true? Arguably, fear and anger are stronger motivators, and bipartisan to boot: Trump capitalized on those passions to propel himself to electoral college victory, and fear and anger are also fueling the strong opposition that\u2019s emerged since his election.<\/p>\n
So what\u2019s love got to do with it? Listening, connecting, empathy\u2014the small and steady force that goes to work on hearts and minds like water on rock. That\u2019s the spirit behind the canvassing I\u2019m doing each month with Swing Left. We travel outside our deep blue bubble to engage with people in the nearest swing district to try to turn a red House seat blue. Door-to-door canvassing is like phone banking with exercise\u2014moving down the list of people who mostly don\u2019t answer. But when they do, something small and miraculous happens: listening, connecting, caring about the other person.<\/p>\n
We ask people about their local concerns, how they\u2019re feeling about the direction of the country. Talking to people helps me curb my own tendencies toward writing off those with different viewpoints. Of course we are trying to identify votes for Democrats in the mid-terms. But we also seek to understand what matters to people. I can assure you, it is not the Russians, or Trump\u2019s tweets, or shutting down the government (a move that generally generates disgust, not kudos).\u00a0 Mostly, people are concerned with traffic, healthcare costs, jobs. Danica Roem, the Democrat who unseated a long-term Republican in Virginia’s House of Delegates last fall, understood this. She may have won a place in history by being an out transwoman, but she won her campaign by focusing<\/a> on fixing the congestion on Route 28.<\/p>\n She also won because of voter turnout: the highest statewide in 20 years for an off-year race, with the youth vote<\/a> doubling in less than a decade.<\/p>\n Which brings us back to love and hate. Love\u2019s opposite is not hate but indifference. We hear it all the time: \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d \u201cBoth parties are the same.\u201d \u201cMy vote doesn\u2019t count.\u201d \u201cNothing will change.\u201d Political demoralization is rampant across party lines, and it\u2019s easy to understand why people who feel that politicians are indifferent to them are indifferent to voting.<\/p>\n The silver lining to the 2016 election is that many people who have never before participated in politics now see that elections have consequences, the outcomes are not the same, and that their involvement matters very much.<\/p>\n A sign I saw at this year\u2019s San Francisco Women\u2019s March sums it up:<\/p>\n This past election was not determined by Trump voters.<\/p>\n It was not determined by Democrats.<\/p>\n It was determined by non-voters.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Love won’t trump Trump and his GOP enablers. Voting will.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Love trumps hate. It\u2019s a nice sentiment, but is it true? Arguably, fear and anger are stronger motivators, and bipartisan to boot: Trump capitalized on those passions to propel himself to electoral college victory, and fear and anger are also … Continue reading