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Where can I interact with Republicans "in the wild"?
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Anonymous
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Sounds like such a weird Beltway kind of question but I really do want to break out of my bubble.
I live in Takoma Park, and I have only ever lived in blue states or Europe. The most conservative members of my family are now never-Trump/Lincoln Project type Republicans, all the rest are Democrats. I have two Republican friends here and they both hate Trump. I'm sure I could crash a Young Republicans meetup, but I'm not looking for a strictly political setting. I want to just see how people who think way differently from me live their lives as normal people and understand why they think the way they do. I'm not religious so it's not like I'm going to sit in an evangelical church just for this purpose. And I'm not trying to do so as some weird social experiment and write a thinkpiece about it. I just want to meet people and understand them. Where would I go that is most likely to have Trump/new right/populist conservatives just existing in their own lives? Other than stereotypical things like a gun club. Maybe some kind of small town event far enough outside the DC suburbs? |
Anonymous
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LOLOL. Do you want to talk them about politics or just be around people in daily life where you can't really tell?
Try a county fair. Frederick's just ended but lots of farmers (the rural areas have tons of Trump signs) and some Trump hats. Or an Oktoberfest, apple festival, or something along those lines in western MD, WV, or PA will have a good mix of people. But politics isn't the topic. |
Anonymous
| Construction site, a marina, a youth travel baseball game. |
Anonymous
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Well…I’m waiting to pick up my groceries right now, and I need to go to Costco because I am cooking dinner at the homeless shelter this week and need bulk quantities that I will struggle to store in my 1200-foot row house that is walkable to metro (because that’s how I prefer to travel). Then I’m spending my day at various youth sports.
My (shelter) dogs are driving me nuts because I worked too late this week and the weather was bad, so I am hoping I can take them to the dog park today while it’s sunny. We will get take out (probably Indian) and watch a documentary on Netflix tonight (this is why the dog park is super critical). Tomorrow, we’ll go to our Episcopal church, and brunch. My son wants to go thrifting, and then we have symphony tickets. So come on out to Alexandria, and join the fun! |
Anonymous
| My kids went to day care in Arlington with the children of Republican senators' chiefs of staff. The playground they went to as toddlers is closed to protect JD Vance. You may not be in as much of a liberal bubble as you think, people are just too polite to broadcast political differences in these settings. |
Anonymous
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As a fellow Takoma Parker, this is the most Takoma Park question ever.
You can come to my kid’s lacrosse practice this weekend and chat with some Trump supporting parents if you’d like. |
Anonymous
| Local fire station, sports bar, maybe even the quite people in your neighborhood who just go about their lives. |
Anonymous
Sounds like a terrible idea. |
Anonymous
+1, I was struggling with how to phrase this and PPs have done it better, but if OP is out in the world at all, she knows way more Republicans than she realizes. One thing I've noticed is that people will have yard signs and bumper stickers for local R candidates and generic "back the blue" type causes, but not for Trump. This doesn't mean they aren't voting for Trump. |
Anonymous
| Seven Corners, TJ High School, the data centers around Ashburn. |
Anonymous
Seven Corners??? Ummmm no. |
Anonymous
Oh, if you only knew. |
Anonymous
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Hi from flyover country, home of the Reagan Democrats!
I recently went to a lecture on civility offered by the Opinion Editors of two major newspapers (one liberal-leaning, one conservative leaning). You might like their website and videos. If you want to understand Republicans/MAGA without a DC capital spin, try anywhere south of Pittsburgh and into West Virginia. Appalachian coal country. |
Anonymous
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PP. Here's the Civility Project link.
https://greatlakescivilityproject.com/about-our-program/ |
Anonymous
| Umm Republicans are everywhere. You are already interacting with them. |