Oprah Reconnects With Voters Across the Political Divide 4 Years After the Election
In the past four years, the American experiment has been tested as never before: We’ve shuttered the federal government...twice; we’ve chipped away at voter rights; we’ve even impeached a president (remember that?). To top it all off, 2020 has been one crisis after another as we navigate a deadly pandemic, a tumbling economy, and a long-overdue reckoning with systemic racism.
That’s why, with the election right around the corner, I wanted to hear from the voters I met shortly after President Trump’s victory. Back then, in a diner in Queens, New York, reactions to the new administration ranged from terror to glee. I got us together again to see whether that had changed.
OPRAH: Thank you all for being here. So much has happened since we last met. Doesn’t it feel like another lifetime, when we could be together in a diner hugging and singing? First things first: How have your lives changed in the past four years?
ALICIA PEREZ: I have a baby now. He was born with Down syndrome and a rare condition called Hirschsprung’s disease. I retired early so I could care for him.
PATTY LAMMERS: I’ve also retired. But one of the biggest changes for me is that I stopped watching the news. It disgusts me.
ALLISON SEMMES: I was on tour with the musical Motown for about four years. Now my industry is shut down. I moved to California from New York, and then Covid-19 happened.
STAR WALTERS: My life has totally changed. Long story short, my marriage unraveled, so I had to pick myself up and move forward. Right before coronavirus, I was feeling good: I had a great job, and my investments were growing. Then...
SHEILA MENGE: I got Covid-19 the week after the steak house where I work closed, and now I’m temporarily out of a job. My husband and son also got sick. Thank God we’re all okay.
SARINA AMIEL-GROSS: My family all had Covid, too. And I’ve been going through a lot with my daughter, who suffered a concussion in 2018. She’s still not better.
ANUM KHAN: I’ve been a teacher at aBrooklyn public school for the past three years. I love my students, and we’ve been going through a lot during the pandemic. It’s been a roller-coaster ride.
SHARON BECK: Two and a half years ago, I was approaching the age my parents were when they started having health issues. I confronted my own, and I lost 55 pounds.
There’s so much going on within both parties that upsets me. It’s supposed to be “we the people,” not “me the people.”
JULIE FREDRICKSON: My husband and I did fertility treatments, and in the wake of them, I became ill with a rheumatoid condition that affects my spine. I had to sell my small cosmetics business. I'm still on medical leave but doing better.
OPRAH: Wow, the last four years have challenged everybody. But I think anybody who goes through challenging periods comes out wiser and stronger. So let’s move on to politics. When we first spoke, I asked whether, in 100 days, everyone thought they would feel better or worse. Some of you said better; some of you said worse. Let me get everyone who voted for Trump. Sarina, Sharon, Patty, Star, and Sheila: Would you vote the same way today?
SARINA: Yes.
SHARON: With great enthusiasm.
STAR: Yes. I don’t like it when he calls Vice President Biden “Sleepy Joe.” But those names are benign compared to what he’s called: a racist, a traitor.
PATTY: With trepidation, I would. To me, Joe Biden has always been a moderate. I like that about him. What concerns me is that I’m not sure he’s clear on his positions.
OPRAH: Sarina, has Trump done anything in the past four years that was concerning enough for you to question your vote?
SARINA: No. It’s not that I don’t care about how things are done; I’m just much more focused on what he’s done.
SHEILA: There’s a lot he does where I think, Just zip it. If he put his head down and kept doing the work, I think we could get things accomplished. But there’s so much going on within both parties that upsets me. It’s supposed to be “we the people,” not “me the people.”
OPRAH: Has this administration contributed to the sense of division?
ALLISON: Absolutely. Trump is who he is. He represents a mindset of much of America that I was not familiar with. For me, it’s an old way of thinking. It lacks empathy.
ANUM: I didn’t vote for him, and I never would. He’s had so many opportunities to come forward with a strong national response to the pandemic. But he hasn’t done anything to support everyone in this country.
JULIE: I’m having a Thumper moment: If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothin’ at all—and I don’t have anything nice to say about the last four years. It’s been so much worse than I anticipated.
OPRAH: And you consider yourself a conservative.
JULIE: I’m a registered Republican, although I call myself a libertarian. I think you can judge a leader by how they treat their team, and there are team members I had high hopes for who’ve slowly but surely resigned.
OPRAH: What are your biggest concerns going into the 2020 election?
STAR: The media. When George Floyd was murdered, something shifted in our country. Our president was devastated about what happened. Every police officer I know was mortified that someone in uniform did that. What happened? It got stolen. The peaceful protests have also been hijacked, and it’s grown into the Black Lives movement. I won’t say “Black lives matter” because of course Black lives matter. We’re a united country, and I don’t want to keep segregating.
ALLISON: The movement isn’t about segregation; it’s about acknowledgment. George Floyd’s murder is a reminder of something that’s been happening for so long that we’ve been brushing away.
OPRAH: Do you believe Black lives matter?
SARINA: I don’t know if that’s a fair question. Of course Black lives matter.
Here’s the problem: We don’t like our police departments, and that is a state issue.
OPRAH: Sarina, I think what you just said is the purpose of the name. It came from the idea “Of course Black lives should matter." But when we see injustices perpetrated, particularly against Black men who were not armed, that indicates that society doesn’t feel that those lives matter. Here’s another question: Do you believe we live in a society rooted in white supremacy?
SARINA: Not in 2020.
PATTY: No. However, there are pockets within certain organizations that harbor prejudiced people. I think there are police—a small number—that have a history of infractions and should be fired. But until you deal with the unions, nothing will change.
ANUM: We have institutions that are inherently unjust. Look at our education and prison systems.
SHEILA: We have to find a balance. The police officer who killed George Floyd had 18 complaints filed against him. We gave that guy the key to do whatever the hell he wanted. Eventually, he was going to push it too far, which he did.
JULIE: That’s where the Trump administration could show leadership. We have things like qualified immunity that the police unions are apparently fine with and the rest of us are concerned by. I would rather Trump set the tone from the top.
SARINA: But that’s not his job.
JULIE: Qualified immunity is absolutely something his Justice Department could do something about—and he’s shown no compunction about misusing the Justice Department, by the way.
SARINA: Here’s the problem: We don’t like our police departments, and that is a state issue. If you don’t like what’s going on in your police department, speak up.
JULIE: Which is why people have been speaking up and marching.
OPRAH: What do you wish our leaders of every political stripe were doing?
PATTY: I wish they would get things done. We talked about immigration under Bush. Nothing got done. We talked about it under Obama. Nothing got done. We’ve been talking about it under Trump. Nothing gets done. Congress is abhorrent.
SHARON: I’d like there to not be a knee-jerk reaction to everything the president says in a negative way. There used to be more cooperation in the past.
ALICIA: Our leaders should work in every community. I’m still a Bernie Sanders fan. I’m still into having a unified healthcare system.
OPRAH: Anum, what do you wish our leaders were saying?
ANUM: That health should triumph over reopening economies. Students, teachers, and school staff should not be guinea pigs.
OPRAH: Have any of you had experiences under this administration that you don’t think you would have had otherwise?
JULIE: My greatest fear was that the populism Trump espouses would get in the way of small businesses—and sure enough, the tariffs that hit the personal care industry were devastating. It’s been a benefit if you’re a big corporation and have a direct line to
the president. But I don’t have a direct line to the president. I think that is autocracy.
OPRAH: Are you hopeful for the country?
STAR: I am praying and doing—and voting. People say to me, “It’s going to go one way in New York. Why are you even voting?” Well, because people fought for my right to vote.
OPRAH: Mine, too.
JULIE: Being involved in local politics is the only thing that's kept me sane. Everyone should commit time to something local.
OPRAH: That’s where real change happens.
SARINA: The blessing of Covid-19 is that we’re finding our community and connecting with people around us the way we did a hundred years ago. Even with BLM and the protests, people are focusing on what’s going on in their own backyard. That’s good.
OPRAH: Hearing where you’re coming from shows me that even though I might not agree with everybody’s opinions, we are heart strong. My mantra for you all is that in this moment, in this breath, you are well. And I pray that our country, too, will be well.
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