I wasn’t trying to hear it y’all. I’m good over here. PahLEEZE stay over there.
The 2016 Presidential election season felt like we were living in a Hunger Games-y home turf war rather than a democratic process. We were no longer having conversations with people who didn’t already agree with our point of view— across political party lines. (Well, I wasn’t. I’ll speak for myself. :) Maybe there was also a “we” out there with me who were also struggling with (or plain ole avoiding) engaging with those who mewled on in the defense of the xenophobic rhetoric rampant during the 2016 Presidential election season. I wasn’t sure. What I did know though was that I couldn’t take it; I also didn’t understand it.
So I began creating an idea for an independent micro-documentary series (that would ultimately live on the web) with the goal of gathering six to eight strangers, across the political spectrum, for a summer long slumber party… so to speak. It would be a road trip to different areas/cities to engage in events that might get them talking.
I’d remembered back in my college days where we could vehemently disagree with someone; have a spirited debate engaging in a marathon overnight discussion— engaging in a volleying exchange of case-in-points until the sun was rising. Then, we’d go grab breakfast together and keep it pushing. No harm and no real foul either. Just thoughts and informed opinions sharpened by another perspective. The pursuit wasn’t in service of “converting” someone else’s beliefs (or not always in service of converting them) but most importantly to process our own sharply-held values and even negotiate big beliefs and poke at them until someone understood something or maybe we’d crescendo at an anti-climatic resolve to just let it lay. I remembered that feeling empowering. I also have a vague memory of these exchanges not entirely going well sometimes. For instance, if someone had an opinion or position that they couldn’t honestly case-in-point with facts then the “debate” wasn’t level enough to stay interesting. No respect for the camp of folx reclining against the “I just feel that way” cop-out and without having something researched to back up their position’s “why” with, basically.
The sort of healthy exchanges we had back then broadened my thinking, stretched them thin while managing to elasticate them. Binary-thinking was often, itself, the culprit. Things weren’t my opinion vs. your opinion. There wasn’t always a clear this or that. But rather of spectrum of viable nuance and, in this, some alignment. We partied with opposing views in my college days and, in the then-upcoming 2016 election, I wanted this sort of healthy exchange to organically happen somehow again.
So I got a PARTY (so to speak) of opposing opinions started by developing a micro-docuseries following first time women voters all between the ages of 18-24yrs who would be voting for the first time in the 2016 Presidential election:
For a title, I went with PARTY GIRLS: EXPLORING POLITICS ACROSS AMERICA. [“party” here means = political party]. Now… to search the country for six to eight first time voters. Where to begin?