How to Talk About the Shutdown with Folks on the Right
Ask, listen, then pivot from negative (the GOP's shutdown) to positive (the Dems' fight for healthcare)
In these “How to Talk About…” pieces, I offer tips for getting the conversation started with a Trump voter about a current hot topic. I don’t cover all the steps of The Persuasion Conversation Cycle we use to guide our talks, but rather, focus mostly on early pitfalls to avoid and how best to get thing going with opening Asks and some follow ups.
Any conversation is a balance of what we would like to talk about and what the other person wants to talk about. That’s okay—part of listening and connecting means going along in directions and down side roads that we maybe didn’t intend, but the other person is interested in or passionate about.
Still, it helps to go into a conversation with an idea of what we’d like to eventually talk about. Along those lines, there’s a case to be made for not calling this a “shutdown” and to instead reframe it as a legislative issue, but I use the term initially because it’s the word most folks are familiar with and respond to. But as we get deeper into conversations about this current government situation, we want to shift it away from the political mechanics of a “shutdown” and into a discussion about healthcare for Americans:
Congressional Democrats are refusing to support this funding bill because they’re fighting to protect health insurance and keep costs lower for Americans, including extending Affordable Care Act tax subsidies for those who use the ACA Marketplace to buy their health insurance.
Healthcare and the ACA subsidies are where we’d like our conversation to go, but it’s not necessarily where we start.
When we first open a conversation with a Trump voter, it’s not about what’s on our mind—it’s about what’s on their mind.
That doesn’t mean we can’t eventually get deeper into the specifics of an issue and the things we’re concerned about, but they’re probably not where we want to start the conversation. They may come up naturally as the conversation progresses, or later, when we feel we’ve built connection and trust with the other person—which we do through asking, listening, and understanding not just their point of view, but the emotions driving that view.
Need a refresher on why and how we do this in conversation?
Don’t Start With…
Attacking Trump, Vought, Johnson, et al
Venting about the (legitimate) awfulness, lying, and underhanded agendas of specific politicians and officials is usually going to run smack dab into Cults of Personality and the tribal tendency to defend “our guys.” (“He may be an ignorant, lying jackass, but he’s our ignorant, lying jackass.”) Same goes for the GOP as a party. Tribal and negative partisanship is usually going to win out when someone feels it’s in defense of “our side.” Rather than attack GOP politicians (as tempting as that is, and believe me, I succumb to that temptation all the time), work instead on building a positive case for what Democrats are trying to do.
Project 2025 and threats to fire government workers
Two reasons to keep this back in our pocket most of the time:
1) To voters on the right, “Project 2025” is one of those buzz phrases that have been overused to the point of ineffective dismissal. We progressives know what it is, why it’s so bad—and our concerns and fears about it are legit. But like “Nazis” or “fascism” or “racism,” folks on the Right have heard it so much over the past year, it’s lost all impact on them. They may have come to dismiss it as just another made up left-wing imaginary fear—it just rolls off their defensive shells. (“There you liberals go again, blaming everything on some Project 2025 bogeyman.”)
There are good conversations to be had with Trump voters in depth about Project 2025, but they require their own patience, curiosity, and careful framing. Best to leave them out of the start of a “shutdown” conversation.
2) If someone is disgusted and frustrated with “government,” then they may welcome not only the shutdown, but what they see as the positive effects of how they understand of Project 2025 and its intent to shrink government—same goes for Trump bragging about eliminating Democratic projects and workers. (Trump fanned this attitude at the very start of the shutdown by sharing a dopey Halloween-themed AI video of Vought as “The Reaper,” set to a cover of “Don’t Fear the Reaper.”)
(Isn’t calling Project 2025 a “liberal bogeyman” while also cheering on Vought as the Reaper of Big Government a paradoxical contradiction? Why yes, yes it is. Welcome to the Wonderful World of Human Cognitive Dissonance!)
Instead, Do Start With…
As always, instead of succumbing to the temptation to lead with lectures and facts, we ASK the other person for their thoughts and feelings about the shutdown. As we get into the Do’s, keep in mind these handy power phrases—when in doubt or stuck, they’re evergreen for almost any issue:
How do you feel about this issue?
What’s important to you about it? / What does it mean to you?
Tell me more about that.
With that in mind, start simple:
How do you feel about the government shutdown?
Yes, some extremists may welcome it, but for the most part, few everyday voters, even on the Right, wanted a shutdown—many see it as yet another failure of Congress and the government to do their jobs and work effectively. Let the other person express their raw feelings as necessary and agree with them when possible about the futility and frustration we all share around shutdowns.
Why do you feel the government is shut down?
Remember that while we may be relatively well-read into the specifics of political battles like the shutdown, many folks are not. They may only be familiar with the broad-stroke messaging they hear from Fox News or social media, and that messaging may be intentional disinformation about healthcare for undocumented people (also known as “lies”).
So, to start the conversation, we must temporarily set aside most of what know about the issue, resist the temptation to argue back with our own theories and fears, and instead find out what the other person thinks and feels, and how informed and engaged they are. Don’t worry if that’s not as much as you feel you are. Remember, we’re not here to scold or shame them for what they don’t know—we’re here to see if there are things we can help them better understand.
Will an extended shutdown negatively affect you or anyone you know?
“Do you have any friends or relatives who work for the government, including the military, who won’t get paid during the shutdown?”
Rather than lecture them about how bad shutdowns are, we ask them how a shutdown might affect them or their loved ones. Sometimes when we ask a question like this, we may get a knee-jerk “Nope,” but be patient and stay with the question a bit longer. Let them sit with it a minute, and often they’ll realize they do know someone.
How do you feel the shutdown could or should be resolved?
Ask them what they feel Congressional Democrats and Republicans and the Administration can do together to reopen the government. Should both sides be engaging in discussions and negotiations?
Pivoting to Healthcare
At some point in this conversation, it’s likely the Trump voter will bring up GOP messaging lies about Democrats wanting healthcare for “illegal immigrants” in the bill. We know this is an intentional lie to stir up anger along what Republicans feel is their best emotional hot button: Immigration. And at this stage, it’s okay to let the other person express this lie in their own words—part of the Smart Politics process is letting others get stuff off their chest and listening attentively, even when we know it’s not true.
So, we don’t start by bringing up this lie, but we should be ready to address it and from there pivot into a discussion about what the Democrats are really asking for: an extension and protection of the ACA tax subsidies that will affect millions of American’s health insurance costs.
We can say something like:
“It’s my understanding that undocumented immigrants can’t receive government supported healthcare like Medicaid or Medicare. So, I guess I’m more worried about how the current continuing resolution bill will let subsidy support for the ACA expire and cause millions of American citizens to lose affordable health insurance.”
Once we’re talking healthcare, we can go deeper:
Do you know anyone who would be affected by cuts to Medicaid or Medicare or by rising ACA health insurance premiums?
Do you know anyone who uses the ACA Marketplace to get their health insurance? Will their monthly premiums will go up dramatically if the subsidies are allowed to expire at the end of this year?
Do you feel the ACA tax-credit subsidies should be extended?
Do you think the healthcare insurance system in America functions well? Is affordable? Are there problems or places for improvement?
With that in mind, do you think Democrats should continue to hold out for an extension of the ACA subsidies before agreeing to the continuing resolution?
Finally, we’re working to find common ground and build an alliance:
What can you and I do about this problem right now?
“Would you be willing to contact your Republican Congressional representatives and tell them you support extending ACA subsidies and you want to see them work with Democrats to solve the problem and reopen the government?”
“Do you feel this healthcare issue is something you could talk about with your own friends and family?”
What is the Smart Politics Way?
Smart Politics encourages and teaches progressives to have more productive conversations with Trump voters. We believe the most effective actions for achieving short- and long-term progressive goals involve talking one-on-one with and listening compassionately and constructively to folks with different opinions.
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Locke Peterseim is the Smart Politics Content Manager.
I appreciate this post and your substack in general. I am starting to see the need on the left to transition from a focus on moral purity and conviction on ideals, to learning a set of skills to bring more people into a vision. Learning how to listen and validate the views of people we disagree with is a key skill to develop. I know for myself, I left the right because I saw a better vision of the future and I had to develop skills of visioning a better future in order to break out of that old paradigm. Now that I'm out, I need to develop the skills to bring others along with me. The only way out is through up-skilling our political discourse. Thanks for helping to teach a critical skillset.
Do you see any space for, "My understanding is that the Republicans in Congress could pass the bill if they wanted to. It'd change a procedural rule but they did that recently on something else. Why do you think they want Democrat support instead?"