Washington • If President Trump’s survival tactics depend upon dividing the country into warring camps, does this mean his opponents have an interest in bringing the country together around shared purposes?
If the answer is “yes,” then those seeking to replace Trumpism with something better have to discover ways of engaging with voters whose choices in the last election differed from their own. Is there still a place in our politics for dialogue, persuasion and conversion?
There is a case that these are naive questions. The most important political fight this year is about flipping control of at least one house of Congress from the Republicans to the Democrats, and in lower-turnout mid-term elections, the emphasis is more on getting your core supporters to the polls than on altering anyone’s thinking.