I work driving rail crews at night. Usually I only spend a few minutes with each crew- taking them from the yard or dorm to their trains, but sometimes the trains are delayed, or there are paperwork issues, and I will spend an hour or more with a crew.
A couple months ago, one of those delays happened, and one of the crew members and I chatted during the delay.
Actually, it didn’t start as a chat. It started with that crew member announcing that President Trump had called out Senator Warren again by calling her “Pocahontas.” I must have made a face, or noise of disgust, or something, because that crew member said, “Huh, looks like someone doesn’t like the truth.” While I was trying to decide whether to use my superpower as a woman of a certain age to put this whippersnapper in his place, he told me how he was actually part Native American, and found Sen. Warren’s assertion that she was Native American without any proof as an insult, and that he enjoyed Trump calling her on “her hypocrisy.”
I said that I could see how it would annoy me to have others, perhaps mistakenly, claim my heritage, but there were better ways to do it. It could have turned into an argument, but the crew member said with glee, “Oh my god, you're a Snowflake! A living, breathing honest to god liberal!” and he said it like he was thrilled to finally see such a rare bird here in rural Ohio. He asked if I had gone to the Women’s March, and if I “had worn a puss ...er….cat ears hat.”
“Yup, proudly progressive liberal snowflake here, with marching street cred. And what do liberals call conservatives nowadays? It has to be something bad. Like, ‘Kitten Killer’ or something,” I said.
“Nazi. You guys call us Nazi’s. But I like Kitten Killer too. Maybe Nazi Kitten Killer will be next liberal insult for us?”
“Next time I go to the meeting for the Progressive Agenda to Take Over The World And Make Republicans Pay For It, I’ll suggest it, “ I told him.
“Good, do that. Now, tell me what is so terrible about Donald Trump. I want to report back to the RNC about beautiful Snowflake tears all you lefties are shedding. We love them.”
But instead, I told him that we probably had more in common than he thought. He was incredulous. I told him, for instance, I was pretty much for gun ownership, as long as the gun owner couldn’t take down a plane at cruising altitude, and didn’t have a record of domestic abuse. “I’m not thrilled about someone with a bad temper taking out her family because she thinks her man is cheating.” He agreed with me. He said that no one should be able to force a business to serve gay people, and gave his reasons. I disagreed. We both agreed that political discourse has become too violent, and both lamented that civility seems to be of little value right now. We have decided in our small way to change that— at least for one young right-winger, and one old progressive lefty.
Since then on, we’ve had several discussions, with our goal to figure out what views we have in common, and areas where we will never agree. Its been interesting, and maddening, and has made me articulate things that I hadn’t thought completely through. We’ve discussed education reform, tax reform, welfare reform, banking scandals, the Me Too movement, sexism, and several other topics. We agree about half the time, which surprises him. He seemed to think that liberals had nothing whatsoever in common with conservatives. He’s asked me several times if I’m a fairly middle ground person, and I tell him no. I’m a lefty, left, left progressive. I mentioned something I had read here on Kos, that conservatives want to stop all the people who cheat at welfare programs, even if it means a portion of the needy don’t get help, and a liberal wants to help everyone who needs it even if it means some people get away with cheating the system. That idea has come up several times, as we both reconcile that our goals are similar, but our paths are very, very different.
We don’t just talk about politics, either. I’m learning about his family- he is a very proud daddy. He’s learning about me and my life, and we are learning to respect and like each other as people.
I look forward to getting assigned to pick his crew up, just because we are getting to be friends. When we see each other, I say, “Heil, Kitten Killer!” and he yells, “Snowflake!” And if I’ve caught up with WaPo and Reuters, I hope his train is late so we can talk, and if Trump has done something stupid, he hopes his train is on time, so he doesn’t have to defend him.