Why I Still Talk to the Ones Who Can Be Moved

Not to forgive. Not to forget. But to win.

I’ve been getting a lot of heat lately—for trying to connect, for talking about nonviolent communication, for refusing to mock every Trump voter as if they’re all the same.

Let me be clear: I’m not trying to have a beer with MAGA cultists. I’m not wasting time on people who would cheer for book bans, internment camps, or show trials. That’s not who I’m talking to.

But I believe—and I’ll keep believing this because the stakes are too high not to—that there are people in power, or near power, who are not ideologically lost, just terrified. People like Lisa Murkowski. People whose loyalty is built on fear, not belief. People with weak character—but maybe just enough of a conscience or self-interest to act when pushed the right way.

That’s who I’m speaking to.

And I know it makes people mad. Democrats, independents, activists—people who’ve fought tooth and nail for truth and justice—they want rage. They want retribution. I do too. I get it.

But here’s the thing: we don’t win by judging voters. We win by peeling them off.

Not the true believers. Not the brownshirts-in-waiting. But the scared. The silent. The cynical. The ones who see the storm coming and don’t want to go down with the ship.

We don’t have to agree with them. We don’t have to absolve them. But if we want to win—if we want democracy to survive—we have to be smart enough to know which enemies can become allies, even briefly, even imperfectly.

That’s not weakness. That’s strategy.

This isn’t about kumbaya. This is about power. If we can speak clearly enough, calmly enough, compellingly enough, some of them might move. Enough of them to tip the balance.

We’re in the fight of our lives. And in a fight like this, every crack in the wall counts.