You know what I wish? That people who felt compelled to make these pronouncements would make them in the first person, rather than the second. If you have a story about a Trump supporter in your life that YOU reached out to, Pete? Go ahead and tell it. But if not? Come on, man.
In general, I find "I try to" or "I've had good luck with" stories way more effective than "you should all" decrees, for a bunch of reasons. They ground the speaker in the specificity of their circumstances, for one thing, and force them to articulate their position concretely.
And on a more fundamental level than that: THEY SHOW THAT YOU'RE DESCRIBING SOMETHING REAL, that you're not just making up fairy tales or puppet shows.
If you're actually having these conversations, and having good luck with them, great. If you can do it, and it's healthy for you, it's honestly probably a good thing. I suspect, though, that a lot of them are going like this.
That's reality. That's how things are going for a lot of people. And if that reality means you need to disengage, or means that reaching out feels more like an act of kindness than an act of hope, that needs to be acknowledged and respected.
For the folks I know who are in the situation Pete is describing, reaching out isn't a matter of mending what's been broken, not a matter of either personal or national healing. It's an act of sacrifice, with no expectation of positive result. It's sad and hard and depressing.
And if that's your situation, it sucks, and you have my sympathy.

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More from @studentactivism

10 Nov
Here's @DeanBrowningPA's "I'm a black gay guy" tweet, since deleted. Image
And here's a selection of times @DanPurdy322, whose account is brand new and who replies to @DeanBrowningPA A LOT, has described himself as a black gay guy. Image
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Both GOP candidates in Georgia's US Senate runoffs release a statement that the state's top election official, a Republican, has "failed the people of Georgia, and...should step down immediately."
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And yes, there's a danger there—the guy they're attacking is a loyal Republican who won a statewide race just two years ago to get his current position. But Trump is Trump, and he's looking for people to send to the cornfield right now, so you smile and tell him he's smart.
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Beginning to see some Trumpworld folks citing Gore's delayed concession in 2000 as precedent for their refusal to concede. Some context:
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The coin, BTW. Image
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Carli Pierson does not. Keep moving.
We're going to be seeing a LOT of these in the next few months, with the premise that if Biden doesn't pardon, it'll "put Trump in front of the news cameras for the next four years, battling potential criminal and civil charges." But a federal pardon does nothing to prevent that.
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My own sense is that Georgia is so close with so few outstanding votes that no call is coming anytime soon. Pennsylvania is chugging inexorably toward a call, likely this afternoon or evening.
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