Come together ...

• Author: Duplass, Mark
• Position: POLLING PLACE - Voting for Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump

I VOTED FOR HILLARY CLINTON. That means I am an elitist, out of touch, Hollywood libtard. I abuse my platform to preach my unrealistic, ultra-leftist political agenda without doing the proper research to back up my claims. I am grossly out of touch with the American everyman. I spend my time whining about the results of the election. I am "butt hurt" because I "lost" and I refuse to give Pres. Trump a chance.

You voted for Donald Trump. That means you are a racist, misogynistic, closed-minded xenophobe. You have zero empathy for the rights of the under-represented in this country. You are enabling, if not directly supporting, an "alt-right" movement that is paving the way for a neo-Nazi era in our country. You spend your time gloating because you "won" and refuse to listen to "idiot snowflake liberals" across the aisle.

I would love to say that all of these generalizations are false, but I cannot. Admittedly, I do sometimes preach ideals that are less than fully researched, and I do not truly understand what it means to raise a family on the median American salary. On the flip side, I also have received so many shocking and hateful comments from some of my conservative Twitter followers that I cannot outright discount some of the gross generalizations being made about Trump supporters.

However, I think we all can agree that the larger story is much more complex, and that many of us reside a lot more in the gray zone than social media would have us believe. For instance, I grew up in a middle class Republican household. My parents were conservatives who appreciated tax breaks so they could spend that money as they saw fit, believing they knew better than the government where to put it. I have carried this philosophy with me, and that very fiscal conservatism has been the model upon which I have made independent films and built my entire career.

Conversely, I recently met a Trump voter who gives 10% of everything she makes to her church. She believes in her pastor, who has direct connections with the members of her community, to dole out the charitable gifts to deserving families who need help with food, clothing, and rent. She essentially believes in "taxing" those with more and handing it out to the poor who arguably need it most. I am a fiscally conservative liberal; she is an empathetic Trump supporter. In these slivers of crossover I cannot help but think: is there a chance for us?

So, I recently tried something with a group of friends...