One Small Step with WYSO brings strangers with different beliefs together for a conversation — not to debate politics, but to simply get to know each other.
In this episode, Jenn Miller of Englewood and Diane Flick of Centerville reflect on how political polarization can strain family relationships and how trying to build connections across political lines can help repair that divide.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Miller: Have political discussions strained any of your relationships with friends, family, co-workers or classmates?
Flick: I try really hard not to let it. Every once in a while, there's something that may cause a little tension in the room, but only with people close to me. So how about you?
Miller: I would have to say yes, that political discussions have strained relationships specifically with my family, because we're polar opposites there. And my mom always wants to talk politics. And I'm like, why? Cause we don't agree, but she'll bring up topics that are very sensitive. And I'm like, okay, I'm willing to discuss this with you. At the end of the day, you're still my mom. I'm still going to love you. We can have our differences. Which I appreciate. It's never gotten to a point where I'm cutting her off because I can't, she's my mom. I mean, technically I could, but I'm not going to do that. She is very pro-life. I'm very pro-choice and her bringing up conversations like that have put a strain on things because she doesn't understand how I can feel so passionately about something that she also feels so passionate about in the opposite direction. Before Trump was reelected, we had a lot of political discussions. So then when he won...
Flick: The first time or the second time?
Miller: The second. I took it personally. I took her vote personally. It was hard for me not to take everything that we have talked about prior and to not take her one vote personally. That was hard. And I had a hard time talking to her just in general because she knew how I felt. I feel like we do as a country need to find a middle ground.
Flick: I just feel so sad. That's just so sad to hear. You're family. I think a lot about who profits from the things that you believe. Who stands to gain? And I just think this very oppositional culture has been created because people do stand to gain from it. And the rest of us are just pawns in these greedy people's sick little game. Maybe I'm catastrophizing, but l think about that quite a lot. I don't want to feed that dragon, if you know what I mean. I've been a poll worker for the first time in my life in the last couple of years, I've done it several times and I love it so much. It is exhausting, but if you're feeling kind of like, "oh man, what is America even doing?" Go be a poll worker, cause like those people who do that, they're just literally serving their community. And you are not allowed to dress politically and you're not really supposed to talk about it. Like something else that people don't know, at least in Ohio, at every polling place, there has to be a minimum number of registered Democrats and a minimum of registered Republicans.
Miller: Interesting.
Flick: We are really not gonna make it if we don't really put our hearts and heads together.
One Small Step with WYSO is produced by the Eichelberger Center for Community Voices at WYSO. This series is made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and presented by the Charles F. Kettering Foundation.
