Just responding to comments this morning since I crashed out after posting last night. First, when I say I’m “sort of” dating this guy, I mean we’re not a couple. We’re never going to be a couple. We’re companions of convenience. I call it dating because he mostly pays for the outings and we do things old couples do, like taking day trips to tourist sites. But I’m not hanging out with him out of desperation for a date. I do it because he’s a really nice man and I find him interesting.
I Ioathe the GOP power brokers as much as the next liberal, but I don’t hate ordinary Republicans, even if they harbor wrong-headed beliefs. I have lots of hard core conservative friends. They are decent people, basically kind, and generous to a fault. Sure, they live in an echo chamber. It’s human nature to seek to belong to a group of like minded individuals.
I’ve always deliberately sought out groups with opposite ideologies. Many of them are still reachable and not seeing how you change their minds unless you engage with them. The ones I befriend are not evil. Neither are they stupid. Mostly they’re just scared by the rapid pace of change in society so they form social enclaves that reinforce their own norms where they feel safe. How different is that really from what we do on the left?