*Long thread alert*

I've spent 2020 writing "Letters to Washington" from across the country to elevate the voices of ordinary Americans.

This is the series finale—with a twist. It's unlike anything I've ever reported or published. Please give it a read. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/12/13/letter-to-washington-20-americans-explain-2020-election-433756

This isn't sexy stuff. None of these people are influencers. They are your neighbors, colleagues, friends and family.

They're all trying to make sense of this moment in America. I'll bet you are, too.

To that end—agree or disagree with these folks—you should hear them out.

Meet Chip. He's a socially liberal and fiscally conservative "hippie" who says "It’s [a] pity we can’t be more kind to each other."

Chip voted Trump despite his “lack of empathy for the Covid issue and his nonstop penchant for idiotic rhetoric." The consequence? Family breakage.

Meet Andrea. She took issue w/ her peers grumbling about Biden: "I know that many black people are hoping for radical change. I want that too, but I believe there is so much work to be done... Joe Biden as president is the beginning of that work.”

Is she optimistic? Not exactly.

Meet Jess. He's a Republican who voted third-party in 2016, and is perplexed by how his fellow Mormons have embraced Trump these last 4 years.

He voted Biden with hopes of a return to normalcy. But he's worried that Dems will use their power to further escalate the culture wars.

Meet Ken. He says Trump is “not admirable as a person" and we need “a leader on one side or the other who can reconcile the polarization and appeal to the constructive impulses of people on each side, red and blue"

Yet he voted for Trump b/c "Democrats have gone completely nuts"

Meet Brenda. She voted Biden because Trump’s “immoral” behavior “goes against everything our parents taught us."

And yet...her sister voted Trump. The two are talking it out. “It makes me sad to see so many families torn apart by politics. I’m determined it won’t happen to mine"

Meet Li-Hsiang. He has struggled with his evangelical parents' loyalty to Trump because they believe "with Democrats in power, evangelicals will be unable to profess their beliefs and be driven from society.”

He voted Biden, and sees a sharp generational divide in the church.

Meet Louis. Like many ppl I've met, he blames the left for his Trump vote: "There is a frightening, religious-like self-assurance... that they have the truth by the tail and are endowed by God with the obligation to stuff their wisdom down the unwilling throats of non-believers."

Meet Charlie, a singular character in this series. He told me: "The Democratic Party that I knew and supported for 40 years was on the side of the working people, but that just isn’t true now, either legislatively or culturally.”

That's why he voted for...drum roll... @kanyewest

Meet Cynthia. She's one of many Trump voters who told me the election was stolen: “If this election fraud is not righted, I fear that we as a nation are done… I think we could be headed to another Civil War and I am not an alarmist.”

What Civil War would look like? Her reply:

Meet Brady. He's estranged from his family and his conservative hometown in Texas -- over politics, over coming out of the closet -- and says attempts to reconcile have actually made things worse.

"I guess I just think it’s always going to be like this," he told me.

Meet Steven. He hammered the institutional failures of both parties and questioned the basis on which we choose leaders.

“How is it that the entire chain of command of our nuclear arsenal must pass rigorous security clearances except the person with their finger on the trigger?”

Meet Diana. She wrote me in July, explained she'd left the GOP. “I voted for Trump and thoroughly regret my decision."

Last week, she wrote again. “Trump is an asshole. I voted for him because I believe in second chances and I believe he represented what people want in America."

Meet Duane. Left the top of the ticket blank. Said something that stuck with me, regarding a historical trend of polarization rising as military service/kinship declines: “It didn’t matter if you were a big businessman or a janitor, if you had served you recognized the other man"

Meet Kevin. He offered some nuanced observations re: Democrats and the black electorate, with an implicit response to Trump's infamous "What do you have to lose?" line

"I don’t expect Democrats to make things better for Black people but I know things could be worse," he told me.

Meet Lucy. She's a Dem activist in the Lehigh Valley and did lots of street protesting against Trump. Her view of the MAGA movement?

“Viewed from further back, Trumpism looks like a hatefest, but close up, it felt like a lovefest. Trump was feeding them something they needed."

Meet Sean. He was among many to predict a coming civil conflict. He was also one of many Rs buying the mass-voter-fraud narrative.

When I challenged his assertions, his response spoke to a broader crisis re: our information systems and lack of trust in the institution of media.

Meet Aime. She told me of our current political impasse, "The God’s honest truth is that when Americans are looking toward authoritarianism or socialism to fix their problems, we have to admit the center has failed."

She also spotted some light at the end of the 2024 tunnel.

Meet Michael. He voted for POTUS, but made a compelling (if unprovable) argument:

"If Trump had put on a mask in April and begun talking just a bit more like Churchill (this is tough, but we are gonna kick this pandemic’s ass) then he would’ve won this election in a landslide."

Meet Ken. He pastors an evangelical church, voted for Don Blankenship (!) to avoid compromising his values, and told me he's been disturbed to learn about the news diets of his parishioners.

"I was hearing people say things like: ‘I think our country is headed for a civil war'"

Finally, meet Grazie. She wrote me in January: “Hispanics believe in family (the classic kind), country, God, order, and freedom to prosper. Democrats have alienated them with their identity politics, their anti-religious bias..."

She says "the real country" will turn on Biden.

Thus concludes my longest-ever Twitter thread. Thanks for reading.

I hoped reporting this series would make me more confident in America. It didn't. As I wrote: "I’m not sure reconciliation is possible. Some bonds of affection can never be unbroken."

Here's to hoping I'm wrong.