“Nobody makes a greater mistake than he who does nothing because he could do only a little.” – Edmund Burke

It’s time to panic.

Our November Blue Wave is in serious trouble.

It will have to withstand weaponized gerrymandering, corrupt state and local voting officials, nationwide disenfranchisement through the SAVE Act, federal collection of state voter rolls, and a complicit SCOTUS, Congress, and Postal Service, etc. Add to that the data exploitation and manipulation abilities that Elon Musk and Peter Thiel bring to the table, and this nasty little secret.

And, who knows what else the oligarchs have planned?

The math is bad, real bad, and it's going to get worse. The only way democracy will survive is a much greater drop in Trump’s support, accompanied by a massive landslide victory that overcomes that election math and his henchmen’s confident corruption.

To get these numbers in time, each of us needs to work with every Independent, disengaged, and Trump voter we know. Political conversations can no longer be taboo; they are required. Silence isn’t an option. Silence is surrender.

Yes, the conversations with Trump supporters can be difficult, but they need to happen - and we need to do them right. A functional democracy requires that we have these conversations eventually, so let’s have them now, when they will be so much more useful.

We really do need these conversations now, and things are aligning to make them easier and more effective. If the electoral reality above doesn’t convince you that now is the time, then maybe some of the following will…

Why these conversations are critical now

• The aforementioned election reality.

• The propaganda is keeping up with Trump's atrocities, from the Epstein files to the war with Iran. Fox News and right-wing consistently have his back, revealing just how far these voices will go and why they must be stopped. They will keep his numbers up, so we have to counter that. We don’t just want people to reject Trump; we also want them to learn to distrust and distance themselves from those who’ve lied to and exploited them. 

• Trump is handing the reins of democracy to billionaires, corporatists, oligarchs, and theocrats. After decades of weakening our government, they’re making their final assault on Democracy. They know this November is their best chance, so we need to understand this is our last stand.

• We are losing science, education, expertise, and government protections by the minute. This will lead us further into a declining society, worsen our health, and ruin our planet.

• We and the rest of the world are at the mercy of a narcissistic sociopath in cognitive decline who is undermining our democratic principles. He and the GOP are enriching the rich, abandoning the rest, and literally destroying the planet. Our institutions can do nothing to stop them. All of humanity is looking to us to save them (and ourselves).

The fact that a common enemy is coming into focus can help these conversations. We’re not each other’s enemies. We never were— we were persuaded to believe we were. Our anger, our energy, and our fight must be directed at the true source of this crisis: the oligarchs, corporatists, and propagandists who are tearing us apart so they can hijack our democracy.

We were never meant to stand alone. We are wired for connection, built to depend on one another. It’s in our nature to care, to grow, and to stand together. The sooner we remind each other of that, the sooner our nation will heal.

We need to capture this moment. It calls us to a new responsibility. If we don’t engage with one another, we’ll only be helping those who seek to control and exploit us, and we will lose our democracy.

Now more than ever, these conversations matter, and we may be among the last who can still reach Trump supporters.

Why these conversations will be easier than before the election

For the most part, we neglected to have these crucial conversations before the 2024 election. Some of us, caught in our own information bubble, were certain Harris would win and felt little urgency to engage. Others held on to hard lessons learned from talking with Trump supporters in 2016 and 2020, where we were left shocked, confused, and angry at the choices and behavior of people we thought we knew. In response, we pulled away… and so did they.

The most important thing that will make these conversations easier now is the growing understanding of how to have these conversations. Conversation experts know how to minimize the negativity and maximize the results.

Our country is different now, too, and in many cases, the reality of living in an America that Trump supporters weren’t expecting will make some of these conversations easier. In other words, saying “Look at what’s happening” is much more effective than saying “Look at what might happen.”

• The skyrocketing gas prices and the cost of living in general resulting from Trump’s tariffs, his mass deportations, and his insane war with Iran.

• The horrors of the Epstein files, conveniently ignored by the entire Trump administration, most Republicans in Congress, and right-wing media - exposing all of them for what they are and what they are capable of.

• The selling of high-priced pardons to high-profile drug dealers, white collar criminals, and corrupt politicians.

• He and his family profiting from stock trades affected by his policies, international real estate deals, investments in military contractors that later received no-bid contracts, and the repeated use of baseless lawsuits against his own government.

• Replacing expertise with loyalty throughout our government, enabling dangerous incompetence and corruption in agencies intended to protect us.

• Giving tax breaks to the wealthy, our national treasures to corporations for exploitation, while taking government services away from the rest of us.

• Ignoring Climate Change by leaving the Paris Climate Agreement, firing climate scientists and stopping ongoing research, and paying corporations billions to stop existing wind turbine projects (with our money)

• The atrocities, expense, and ominous future uses of ICE

• Moving away from our allies and NATO while embracing and supporting Putin, Orban, and other dictators, while firing high-level law-abiding military leaders

As the spell of propaganda and disinformation begins to weaken, some are realizing that their government was not the enemy they were taught to see.

We can use this. Don’t wait for their buyer’s remorse; get in front of it. Let them know they are welcome back, with no questions asked. This is important: knowing up front that they have somewhere else to go will make it much easier for them to leave Trump and that dangerous right-wing information bubble behind.

Note: While the above might be a tempting list of talking points, in most cases, it is better to avoid them. Look here and here for additional discussions on this.

Why our friends and family voted for Trump

Understanding how many were attracted to Trump is important if we expect to guide them away from him. This is a complex and nuanced topic, one explored in countless books, articles, and videos (including this great explanation). We’ll keep it brief…

We live in a world awash in manipulative and harmful rhetoric. It comes at us from all directions, all day, every day. At its core is an unrelenting drive for power by a select few. Several key dynamics shape this landscape:

• Oligarchs are rising to power, and in pursuit of greater control over society, they are extending their reach into government and consolidating and dominating the media.

• Traditional news sources are being abandoned in favor of social media, entertainment-driven reporting, and shallow headlines that obscure deeper understanding.

• Propaganda and disinformation technologies are advancing faster than our minds’ natural defenses, and our institutions can adapt.

• Our brains’ inherent malleability (neuroplasticity) is being exploited to subtly reshape how we interpret the world around us and how we react to it.

Persistent, widespread disinformation, amplified by fearmongering and scapegoating, has been deliberately weaponized by those intent on reshaping our society. Manufactured threats like “coastal elites,” “white replacement theory,” “wokeness,” “the deep state,” and “the attack on manhood” are deliberately deployed by those intent on re-engineering our society.

These tactics, combined with conservative policies that concentrate wealth and disempower the public, foster a sense of lost control and diminished self-worth. That loss breeds insecurity and anxiety, which in turn rewire our brains—eroding reason, amplifying threat sensitivity, and deepening distrust. Low self-esteem makes us resentful of “others” while drawing us toward fellow sufferers and charismatic figures promising quick fixes. The result: a vulnerable population, primed for exploitation.

Intelligence doesn’t guarantee a defense against propaganda; when low self-esteem and anxiety take hold, they often overpower our capacity for rational thought. It’s also important to realize that most of this goes on deep in our unconscious mind, leaving us unaware and unable to break free.

Regardless of circumstances, anyone who spent too much time in the echo chamber was bound to be pulled under. It didn’t just manufacture victimhood, resentment, and tribalism; it also shaped our consent for the destruction of democracy.

Other dynamics that may have helped sway our friends and family include:

• Young Trump supporters were in their mid-teens when he left office, too young to remember his failures. Democratic messaging didn’t fill the gap, but social media influencers amplified his bravado.

• Decades of conservative fiscal policies, such as trickle-down economics, have left many behind, fueling legitimate feelings of low self-esteem and anxiety.

• Many still clung to the stubborn belief that Republicans are the party of “law and order” and “fiscal responsibility.

• The steady framing of Democrats as socialists, unpatriotic, and undermining traditional values.

• Over fifty years, Conservative rhetoric has increasingly framed our government as the enemy.

• A growing awareness that human progress was pushed aside for the economic progress of the few has created a sense of disillusionment and a longing for the past or ‘anything different’.

• The belief that “it will never happen here” insulated our minds from the urgency of the moment

• Long-running whitewashing and bothsidesism in mainstream media blurred the lines between the parties and their candidates, dulling the public’s sense of danger.

Beneath all of this is a simple truth: those who were stuck in the wrong bubble rarely heard criticism of Trump. Instead, they were flooded with negativity about Biden, Harris, Democrats, and the government itself. We are what our minds eat, and many of us were force-fed a distorted view of the world, and we voted accordingly.

The good news is that neuroplasticity works both ways, and what was done can also be undone. Rather than seeing those caught in echo chambers as lost causes, we might view them as individuals influenced by forces beyond their control—forces we can help them resist and overcome.

So now what?

Hopefully, you’ve made it this far because you see the urgency and possibilities of having conversations with Trump supporters. If you’re still unsure, look at our guidance pages to determine whether these conversations are for you. If you’re fired up and think you’re ready to go, you’re still advised to look at our guidance (or other sources) because there are simple ways to make these conversations smoother and more effective - and there are many more ways to make them go wrong…

Two final friendly reminders as you consider having these conversations:

1. Our unwillingness to engage with Trump supporters only strengthens the influence of those who’ve captured them.

2. As long as we’re fighting each other, we’re not fighting those who broke the system. It’s time to reach out.

Talking heads are destroying Democracy – talking friends can save it. Start your conversation here.