“How are you feeling about the election?” is the question I get from pretty much everyone I talk to this time of year. People who don’t know me as well usually follow up with some version of “sorry, you must get tired of talking about this.”
But I don’t! I honestly love talking about politics with anyone, anytime for the same reason I do it professionally: I’m a sicko.
I’ll be honest, though: outside of work, I’m less comfortable having conversations with people about their politics, especially if they differ from mine. Some of that is a congenital aversion to conflict that I promise I’m working on. But I feel like these conversations have become even harder. And I’m not the only one.
Fifty-six percent of Americans have stopped discussing political news with someone because of something that person said, according to Pew. That’s up from 45% in 2024.
Look, I get it. Speculating with someone about what other voters will do on Tuesday is easier than asking what they’re gonna do and why – especially if they give you an opinion you disagree with, or tell you they aren’t convinced voting is even worth it. At which point you might change the subject because you’d rather not pick a fight or just don’t know what to say next.
The internet and social media have given us countless ways to express our opinions while avoiding conversations that ask more of us. We can post our takes (guilty), fight with strangers (guilty), share things we agree with and dunk on things we don’t (guilty and guilty). And we can do it all without ever having to really understand someone else’s frustration, or respond to criticism we find unfair, or actually try to persuade people who might need more than a link you posted with an all-caps THIS and multiple clap emojis.
Campaigns have a related problem: they’ve gotten much better at figuring out which voters they want to reach, but much worse at actually reaching them.
In 2024, Democrats made 300 million attempts to contact voters by phone. They got through just 3% of the time. And honestly, my first reaction was: who are those 3%? I barely answer calls from people I know. Same with texts and emails. That’s why we have spam filters and Ring cameras. We’ve spent years developing increasingly sophisticated ways to avoid strangers who want something from us – while campaigns have spent that time developing increasingly sophisticated ways to become the strangers we avoid.
But what if the answer isn’t finding a better way for strangers to reach us?
