Our postelection challenge? Start listening to each other

I first knew I loved politics when I went on a summer journey called Etgar 36 as a 16-year-old. Over five weeks, we traveled around the country to meet with representatives on all sides of hot-button issues in American politics: abortion, guns, economic inequality, you name it.

We approached each meeting with one guiding principle: while we may not agree with certain views we hear, we must stop, sit and listen. We learned to put ourselves in the shoes of our presenter, and understand his or her controversial conclusions.

Fast forward to Nov. 22, 2016. A tough postelection period is in full swing, made tougher by endless articles reporting hate crimes against minorities, dangerous Cabinet appointments and — perhaps from my less sympathetic perspective — protests filled with young people who may not have even voted, or decided to get involved in politics now, rather than, say, before Nov. 8.

Yet, we face a greater problem. Whether it was in our campaign offices or in the biases of our Facebook pages, we remained blissfully unaware of the multitudes of undecided voters, who gravitated toward our opponent because they felt he spoke to them.

There’s a reason “Saturday Night Live” performed a skit called “the Bubble.” In the liberal world in which I grew up and went to college, we fastened our blinders to exclude those undecided voters and simplify their predicaments into the choice between two opposing value sets: one that embraces diversity and fights for equality, or one that makes fun of the disabled and advocates for sexual assault.

This binary, simplistic difference creates a comfortable explanation of the fact that almost half the country voted for Donald Trump.

It became a game to laugh at the latest Trump scandal and roll our eyes at the possibility of him actually becoming president. It became a theme to equate Trump voters with extremists who simply scream the loudest but could only fill a baseball field. Finally, it became routine to explain to volunteers that they need not knock on the doors of Trump supporters because this election was a “numbers game,” all about mobilizing those locked-in-place Clinton supporters to win Florida, and by extension, the presidency.

But this is where we fell short. Not only did we fall short in our strategy, but in stereotyping that those supporting Mr. Trump must share the negative sentiments of his campaign. These voters simply longed to be heard.

Donald Trump has successfully stripped whole groups of Americans of their respect while reinstating the dignity of those who felt left behind. As a result, our country is more divided than ever.

To this point, we do not express our differences diplomatically and with respect, and we certainly do not listen. But this is something each of us can change. We can undertake the responsibility of Etgar, a Hebrew word meaning “challenge,” and listen to those with whom we disagree. The future of this country may depend on it.