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Won’t You Be My Republican Neighbor?
It’s an ugly day in the neighborhood — but I’m still hoping you’ll be mine.
What a kick it would have been to live next door to Mr. Rogers.
By all accounts, he was as pleasant in real life as he was on his TV show, Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. And, if we’d been neighbors, even though he was a lifelong Republican and I’m of a more liberal persuasion, I like to picture us occasionally hanging out at the back fence, shooting the political breeze.
I can’t imagine things turning ugly if we didn’t agree. There’d have been no name-calling or cardigan-throwing if we differed over health care or taxation or mask-wearing mandates.
I bet I would’ve learned some things during our chats. Calm and reflective people like Mr. Rogers usually bring a lot to the table — or to the fence. And I know he would have listened to my opinions without rolling his eyes or calling me stupid or a snowflake.
Unfortunately, right now, in most neighborhoods across the country, conversations like that are more fantasy than reality. People of all political persuasions are worked up and ready to go off at anyone who doesn’t parrot their version of events.
Until recently, I ignored the old maxim to never discuss politics in polite society. Who…
