So I have a suggestion. By all means, Trump’s opponents should continue to fight — for health care, civil rights, the climate and truth itself. But there is also a quieter step that’s worth taking no matter your views, for the sake of nourishing your political soul.
Pick an issue that you find complicated, and grapple with it.
Choose one on which you’re legitimately torn or harbor secret doubts. Read up on it. Don’t rush to explain away inconvenient evidence.
Then do something truly radical: Consider changing your mind, at least partially.
Doing so will remind you that democracy isn’t simply about political force. It also depends on inquiry and open-mindedness. “The spirit of liberty,” as Judge Learned Hand wrote, “is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right.” Imagine what this country would be like now if people hadn’t been willing to change their minds in the past.
Today’s polarization — in which left and right are more cleanly sorted — pushes us to double down on all of our views, even the ones we doubt. Opinions, the psychologist Steven Pinker told me, “have become loyalty badges for one’s tribe.”
