This is the first installment in "Divided: A Road Trip Through Trump's America," a five-part series that details some of the issues facing five corners of Americathat supported President Donald Trump in 2016 —and how the people who call those areas home view the state of the union as the Nov. 6 midterm elections approach. Photos and videoby Chris Pedota.
GETTYSBURG, Pa. —They sat in a circle,Republicans next to Democrats, Trump supporters alongsideTrump critics.
No one pointed fingers.
No one yelled at anyone.
When it was over, everyone shook hands.
On a recent rainy evening, 10 people gathered insidea Gettysburg church —not far from the rolling hills where Union and Confederate soldiersfought a climactic battlethat turned the tide of the Civil War— andtried to find ways to heal the deep political divisions that have engulfedAmerica in another sort of civil war.
First, however, the group, which calls itself Politics, Facts and Civility,had to agree on a few rules.
“We’re here to be nice to each other,” saidCurrie Kerr Thompson,a retired Gettysburg College professor and the group’s leader.
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Several participants smiled. A fewplaced handsover their mouths to stifle laughs.
“It’s natural to interrupt, but we’re going to suppress that inclination,” Thompson continued, peeringover his glassesas if he were lecturingone of his college classes.“And we’re also going to refrain from rolling our eyes and making inappropriate noises.”
What followedwas more than 90 minutes of utterly peaceful discourse.First, the group focusedon America’s drugpolicies. But then the discussion turned toa broader issue: theroiling political polarizationthatseems to be worseningas the Nov. 6midterm electionsdraw near.
Pollstell us that voters are not just unhappy with their elected leaders —and with the media who cover them. A vast majorityof Americans harbor profound worries that the country's fractured politics—amplified by social media and 24-hour cable news— haveturned once-sober policy debates into verbal wrestling matches.The result is a growing belief that only the most extreme voices drivethe national discussion.Ordinary folks feel lost. And elected leaders —even at the local level— are left hamstrung, fearing that even a hint at compromise with their political opponentswill result in political death.
All of these factors were behind the efforts to form Gettysburg's Politics, Facts and Civilitygroup—one of the few of its kind in the country.
Thompson, 75,a Democrat who voted for Hillary Clinton, andElizabeth “Betsy” Hower, 71,a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump and theleader of the Adams County Republican Party, joined forces in early 2017 when it became clear to both thatthe discordant national political dialogue had deteriorated even more, in tiny Gettysburg andacross the nation. Each felt their town'srole in helping to preserve a fractured union in the 1860s made ita uniquelysymbolic placeto find common ground between the disparate, angry fringes that now threatento tear America apart.
But Thompsonsays he immediatelyfaceda vexing challenge.One of his most "troubling experiences," he said, was convincing people to come to the group's meetings. "A number of people," he said, "don'twant to talk to those people they disagree with."
But the fewwho initially joined say they were motivated by a sense of duty to their nationthat transcendspolitics."I’m the eternal optimist, but I'm a little worried about the country," said Cindy Daley, 63, who works for a legal services program that helps people find affordable housing. "Our country survives as long as we have faith in it, as long as we have faith in the institutions.And I see that faith just peeling apart."
Atthe end of onerecent meeting, there was no consensus, no plan of action— just a promise to meet again and keep talking. It was a small victory nonetheless — though far lessconsequential thanthe Union army's pivotal triumph at Gettysburg, itwas noteworthy that such a diverse group could meet without trading insults or punches.
For many in the group, as it does for mostAmericans,the mere mention of Gettysburg conjures images of the sort of carnage that can occurwhen a nation is so deeply divided that it goesto war with itself. Even today, some Gettysburg buildings are pockmarked with bullet holes from the three-day battle in July 1863 that left nearly 51,000soldiers dead, wounded or missing.
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President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address,delivered at a battlefield cemeteryjust four months after the shooting ended—in particular his call to preserve a “government of the people, by the people, for the people"—remainsa touchstone of America's civic ideals.
In the waning days of the 2016 campaign, Trump came to Gettysburg to outline his goals for his first 100 days in office, including a pledge to "drain the swamp in Washington, D.C., and replace it with a new government of, by and for the people."In that same speech, Trump also urged Americans to "rise above the noise and the clutter of our broken politics."
Now, almost two years later, members ofThompson and Hower'sgroup agree that the nation appears woefully dysfunctional,in part because of Trump's habit of verbally bashing his critics. A government “of, for and by the people” seems like a distant dream.
“When two elephants fight, the grass suffers,” said Chad Collie, citing an African proverb to call attention to the divisions between Republicans and Democrats,quickly amending it by adding references to the mascots for America’s main political parties —donkeys for Democrats and elephants for Republicans.
Collie, 42,a contractor who voted for Trump “despite opposing his bad behavior,” saysTrump’s Gettysburg speech helped convincehim that the real estate developer and reality TV star was ready for the presidency.At the same time, ColliebelievesTrump hascontributed mightily to the acrimony that continues to colorAmerican politics.
“When you reduce things to short sound bites,” Collie said,“there’s no wonder that everything turns intopolarization.”
Dale Williams, 68, a retired U.S. Navy chaplain, agreed.Like Collie and others in the group, Williams felt that the nation's polarized climate is hinderingdialogue between disparate groups.
“That’s the frustrating thing for me,” said Williams, a pastor at a Presbyterian church in Gettysburg who now volunteers as a counselor to inmates at the Adams County Jail. "Howdo we get people to talk to each other?"
"Let's find things we can agree on," Collie suggested.
Williams nodded."When I think about trying to solve the nation's problems, it becomes frustrating," he said."Maybe we should try to find some local issues we can agree on."
Williams, who cast a write-in vote for a candidate he declined to name because he could not bring himselfto voteforClinton or Trump, said in an interview that he is hopeful that America cancome together."Even during the Civil War, the citizens of Gettysburg took care of the Confederate wounded soldiers," he said.
The Rev. Herb Sprouse,the rector of Prince of Peace Episcopal Church, which has hosted the group for more than a year, said he yearns for some sign that the most extreme voices on each side will find a way to reconcile, or at the very leastpromise to speak respectfully to each other.
“How do we cultivate people beyond our circles of conversation?” Sprouse askedat one point. “How do we plant the desire for reconciliation?"
Finding answers to such questions, Sprouse said, ishardly easy.
“Even maintaining civil conversation under certain circ*mstances can be very hard work,” he said, looking at each member.“From time to time, we've had conversations that have had their provocative moments. But a group like this is only in the room because we value the attempt, and maybe we think that if we do it we’ll get better at it, and maybe it has some impact around us.”
Sprouse paused and looked around the circle.
“It’s not that we have to agree. It’s not that we have to believe the same things,” Sprousesaid.“But we have to be in a relationship that allows society to function.”
Darcy Maier, 59,a social worker who specializes in care for seniors, described herself as a “dyed-in-the-wool Democrat” who has “never voted for a Republican president.”She joined the group because she feared that the nation’s political fissures were widening to a point where they might not ever be repaired.
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“I certainly would never have envisioned myself on this quest of trying to heal the political divide,” Maier said. “After the last election, though, it seemed like the possibility of actual revolution or civil war might be real if we don't take active steps to prevent it.”
At the same time, others are less hopeful that the group will succeed.
Zach Brillhart, 21,the leader of Gettysburg’s Young Conservatives Club, predicts that the nation’s political divide will likely widen.
“I don’t see groups of people suddenly getting together, coming together and operating as one,” Brillhart, who voted for Trump and is not a member of the civility group,said as he handed out campaign literature at a retirement home on the outskirts of Gettysburg.“I think you’re always going to have a division.”
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Gettysburg, a 2-square-milecollege town of roughly 7,800 residents, has long been the cultural, social, economic and political nexus of Adams County, a rolling, 522-square-mile landscape of apple farms, horse pastures and truck warehouses in south-central Pennsylvania that is home to nearly 103,000 people.
But Gettysburg is staunchly progressive and Democratic, whilethe rest of Adams County is something of a Republican bastion. Hillary Clinton capturednearly 65 percentof the nearly 2,800votes cast in Gettysburginthe 2016 presidential election. But Trumptook nearly 69percent of the more than 45,000 votes that were cast throughout the county.
Despite their political differences, Thompsonand Hower realized they had much in common. Both were educators.Thompson taught Spanish at Gettysburg College for nearly 30 years; Hower still works as a substitute teacher in the local public schools.
They had something else incommon:Their ancestorsfought at the Battle of Gettysburg.
Three of Thompson’s great uncles served with North Carolina militia units that were amongRobert E. Lee’s Confederate forces that stormed into southern Pennsylvania inthe summer of 1863. Two of those great uncles were killed later in the war.
Meanwhile, several of Hower’s ancestors fought on the Union side at Gettysburg. One of them, she said, was captured during a skirmish on the city'soutskirtsand washeld as a prisoner of war by the Confederates.
Thompson, who was raised on a tobacco farm in North Carolina and still speaks with traces of a Southern drawl, calls himself a “blue voter” —a Democrat. But he says he is hardly a party loyalist.
“I think my party has been blind on many things, like not recognizing the legitimate frustration of people who are not just unemployed but underemployed,” he said.
At the same time, Thompson said that far too many Democrats also have been “too prone to blow ...off as racism” any attempt to curtail illegal immigration.
“I think the blue voters have not paid attention to many of the needs of the red voters,” Thompson saidat his home outsideGettysburg, not far from a field where his great uncles’ units camped before the battle. “This extreme politicization is hurting us emotionally, morally and intellectually.”
Thompson hopes the group he formed with Hower willspark a national effort to bringa degree of peace and civilityto the nation’s political debates. Beginning this fall, he plans to join forces with a national movement called “Better Angels” —the name comes fromAbraham Lincoln's first inaugural address —that offers seminars onhow people can discuss their political differences.
“I have to recognize that it may not work when people are as divided as we are,” Thompson said. “But I would rather spend what time I have left trying to help bridge the divide than to be saying antagonistic things to tear us apart.”
Hower agrees —though, like Thompson, she is hardly willing to stray from her rock-solid support of Republicans in general and Trumpin particular.
Sheis such a fan of Trump that she carries a cardboard box in her car filled with Trump election signs and other campaign memorabilia.Ask her to name Trump’s accomplishments and she quickly ticks off a litany —his tax cuts, his attempts to curtail illegal immigration, his scuttling of the Iran nuclear agreement, his negotiations with North Korea and China.
Shepooh-poohs the ongoing investigation into whether Trump or anyone involved with his campaign had involvementwithRussia's efforts to influencethe 2016 presidential election. She also has no problem with Trumppayinga p*rnographic actress and a former Playboy modelto buy their silence about affairs they say they had with him before he was president.
“It would be nice if we could come together to support the man, because it is our country,” Hower said one evening as she set up campaign signs on the eve of Pennsylvania's May primary.“He’s not perfect.”
Much of the criticism of Trump, she added, seems to come from a disconnect between America’s heartland — Trump Country —and the more progressiveEast and West coasts.
“There’s a definite divide,” Hower said. “It’s a different way of looking at life. It goes deeper than the surface issues. In my opinion, it has to do with the individual spirit.”
Whether the group that Hower and Thompson started can smooth out Gettysburg’s divisions —and offer a template for the nation —remains to be seen.
Hower says she is happy that the progressives in the group don’t see her as a conservative Republican “with horns.”
Thompson is more hopeful.
As the meeting ended, heread a short passage from an essay in whichtheFrench philosopher Albert Camus observedthat “violence and hatred dry up the heart.”
The group fell silent.
“I don’t know which side is going to win, but I can tell you if the polarizers prevail, no one will win,” Thompson said.“Wouldn’t you rather fail trying to bring people together than succeed in tearing them apart?”
The groupmembers nodded.
Moments later, Thompson smiled and added: “Today Gettysburg; Tomorrow the world."
Email:kellym@northjersey.com
