What a GREAT piece. If I could give it a bazillion claps, I would, but 50 is the limit.

I’m a lifelong independent who leans strongly left-libertarian, and I’ve also changed a lot in the Trump era, mostly because I made a choice early on to use the era to focus on personal growth, and one result of that choice has been to better listen and understand those I may disagree with.

I say “may” because sometimes we believe we disagree more with someone than we actually do. In addition, as you wrote, we have things we agree on and those things can often be, surprisingly, core values.

So I’d like to suggest to people that you contemplate what your core values are – what motivates you to believe what you do? – and then ask others theirs and see if you can find common ground below the surface.

Anyway, great piece!