Author: Jennifer Hardacker

In this episode, Cody touches on an issue I had heard from several folks, and that is the ways that liberals often “police” other left-leaning folks’ viewpoints. Cody experienced being “cancelled” if he dared to question his liberal friends or posted something to social media that wasn’t 100% aligned with liberal rhetoric. I found this conversation to be an important one because it illuminates the ways that the political divide is affecting not only relationships between folks on opposite sides of the divide, but also those on the supposed same side.

Niome was raised in a small, predominantly white, conservative town in Oregon. As the daughter of Mexican immigrant parents, she experienced the political divide firsthand during her senior year of high school in 2016. Niome faced ridicule from her high school classmates for calling out Trump’s racist rhetoric. Further complicating matters, she has family members who are immigrants from Mexico but support Trump’s immigration policies.

Michelle comes from a large Catholic family, but she finds herself in conflict with their conservative beliefs. This has led to challenges in maintaining relationships with certain family members, becoming a source of inner turmoil for her. What deeply troubles Michelle is not merely the divergence in political views but the awareness that for her, it goes beyond politics—it touches upon fundamental questions of morality.

In my conversation with Amy, I discovered how the political divide seeps into work environments, with certain sectors displaying favoritism towards one party and potentially penalizing those with different beliefs. Amy grew up in a staunch Democratic household within the music industry, where her father maintained a surprising friendship with Ronald Reagan despite not supporting him politically. As Amy matured and pursued her music career, her political outlook transformed, yet she felt the need to hide her Republican leanings to avoid alienation in the industry.

Check back again soon for my conversation with Stacy.