I had gone over to a neighbor’s house to drop off a package for them a few weeks ago. This neighbor, you should know, is very politically-minded. So, naturally, after I had dropped off the item and we found ourselves conversing idly, the conversation turned very political and not so idle anymore. My neighbor is a rather right-wing conservative, which is difficult, seeing as I am a rather liberal Democrat with Bernie buttons on my bag.
Scratching his chin, my neighbor remarked that this election year was driving him crazy. He went on about the candidates and "their bull," not excluding Hillary or Trump. He proceeded to fill my ears with the same ranting I’ve heard hundreds of times before — both are untrustworthy, both lie, both are nothing but crooked politicians, et cetera.
Then he spat out a third name, the name decorating the buttons and badges on my bags: Bernie Sanders. His voice changed when he caught the look on my face and remembered that he was bad-mouthing my candidate of choice. And so ensued the speech I’ve been pelted with so many times in this homegrown conservative town I live in. Too idealistic, unsubstantial, impossible wishes…Please, enough already.
“But you’ll be voting for Trump, right?” I said, knowing his conservative leanings.
He scoffed, brushing off my comment. With a chuckle, he told me he never voted, that he just wrote in his ex-wife's name as a joke. He laughed. I did not. I try not to get too angry when it comes to politics — I have my beliefs, you have yours, fine. But when you deliberately get angry at our country and the people running it, and yet you don’t even have the will to participate seriously? That’s something I can’t stomach.
“Well,” I said, ending the conversation, “Bernie may be a ‘foolish dreamer,’ but at least I have a candidate I can believe in.”
I thought that was the end of it, but are conversations about politics ever really over? A day or so later, my neighbor came by with books to drop off. He saw me, immediately remembered our conversation the other day, and made some off-handed remark about Bernie (I can’t remember what it was because I try to push these things out of my mind).
And then he changed directions entirely. He brought up our talk the other day, how he hadn't been the most respectful during our conversation.
This caught my attention.
He voiced his regret about droning on too much without taking pause to hear what I had to say. With a smile, he prompted me to say why I like Bernie.
His tone wasn’t demeaning or hostile, and I had also been thinking about our talk, so I was eager and ready with an answer. I gave him the usual — Bernie wants to make election day more accessible to the entire population, he has big dreams which can sometimes be unrealistic, yes, but at least he wants to accomplish something, and so on.
He nodded, listening attentively. I've thought about my political beliefs a lot, and he recognized this, saying he was glad he asked. We never stop talking long enough to listen to each other, we both mused. We all have a lot to say and a lot to teach one another, and we all have a lot to learn. We just have to practice listening better.
I smiled, a genuine smile. “Hey, maybe Trump could take a page out of your book and talk less."
He laughed again, musing that Trump didn't plan on listening or learning any time soon. That didn't change the fact that he had a lot to learn from, well, a lot of people.
He left and we haven’t talked since, but I’m glad I did get the chance to exchange words with him for a short while. We read news articles and listen to the TV and radio constantly, but we forget that those around us have a lot to teach as well.
