Political Conversations: how should we go about them?
How open communication and connection on similarities between those we differ from can create a tighter, more unified community, regardless and in spite of political affiliations.
Being involved with American politics has become a polarizing game between those you agree with and those you do not. Often, people with differing opinions about burning issues can lead to burnt bridges because we do not know how to talk to each other. The communication gap is detrimental and can lead to weaker communities. However, political differences do not always have to be the end of a relationship. Rather than focusing on the polarizing topics, conversing about topics that we share value on can rebuild these connections.
On Sept. 23, 2026, I had to opportunity to attend a meeting hosted by The Come Together Project, a movement working to unite polarized groups within the United States of America by highlighting the similarities everyone shares. The Project’s founder, Brian Endless, PhD, gave a presentation walking through the Project’s goals and how it has already made small changes in his students’ lives. In May 2026, a study from UC Irvine showed that political differences have been reasons for relationships ending, and its role in relationship breakups – friendship, familial and romantic relations – is increasing. While certain topics have intense, dividing connotations that can strain relationships, refocusing on the similarities we share with those we differ from can unite us.
Most topics that created intense disagreement are not polarizing in nature; they were designed to be as such. The Koch brothers were philanthropists that played a major role in pushing the Republican Party to the American right-wing, forever altering the way American’s practice politics. The Koch’s got their money from oil and searched for power, and saw the Democratic Party, focused on social spending and taxation, posed a threat to that power. They “demonized government as big government,” according to Jane Mayer from The New Yorker on NPR, and were seen as “close to anarchists.” But with their money, they were able to fund projects and organizations, they funded the New Republicans behind the scenes and heavily influenced American politics. Abortion, particularly, was taken as a rallying point for new Republicans due to the influx of Southern Conservatives involvement with politics (due to efforts by the Koch brothers, according to Dr. Endless).
To make a longer story short, the divide in politics has been crafted and sustained by elites. Dr. Endless emphasizes that the elites live different lives entirely from the average American citizen, and once money has little value due to mass amounts of it, then power is what is sought after. Adele M. Stan wrote for The American Prospect that personal beliefs do not equate the measures elites, such as the Koch brothers, will take to protect that power: “[T]hat doesn’t mean they’ll hesitate to throw women under the bus if it helps them in their anti-regulatory, shrink-the-government crusade. Religious-right leaders, in recent years, theologized the free-market cause, providing the Kochs and their ilk with foot-soldiers willing to execute it, if only they could find their way to political power.”
Knowing why we are so divided on these topics can prompt us to turn away from these topics if we are looking to connect with those we disagree with. It is very unlikely you will convince some set in their beliefs to change their mind in one conversation, but you can bridge the gap in your relationship with them by connecting on common ground. Everyone wants access to affordable healthcare that covers their medical costs. Everyone wants a stable and flourishing economy. Everyone wants to live comfortably. Focusing on similarities rather than differences is how we begin to rebuild the bridges that elites have destroyed.
