The sound of one hand clapping
The sound of one hand clapping is an 18th-century Zen Buddhist riddle that highlights things, like sounds, are dependent on interaction. It aptly expresses a problem we have with current political dialogue; it is one-sided. Republican supporters of the current administration are averse to participating in a rational conversation about our current state of affairs.
Three years ago I asked, on these pages, for “thoughtful Trump supporters to present fact-based reasons for their positions”—no takers. I’ve participated in a bi-monthly forum called “civilized discussions” to thoughtfully, and politely discuss issues. Despite many invitations, we’ve never had MAGA folks to join us. We’ve even invited students from The Dartmouth Review to share their perspectives. Despite repeated emails, they never responded. Similar discussion groups have also not found MAGA supporters willing to join the conversation.
I have friends who qualify as MAGA and I occasionally send them emails asking about their views. They usually ignore me. A few return a more or less detailed outline of their positions. While I often take issue with the many unsupported claims, their positions are not up for debate and they seldom allow any followup.
This is not just a local issue. Republican leadership is famously shy about discussing administration policies. House Speaker Mike Johnson brushes off questions by saying he “had not heard about” the issue? Trump’s judicial nominees follow a similar tack. One 2025 analysis found all 30 nominees, when asked whether Biden won the 2020, avoided answering saying “President Biden was certified as the winner by the congress”. (https://demandjustice.org/judicialreport/).
Trump supporter’s frequent response to questions about issues is “I’m not going to change your mind and you’re not going to change mine, so let’s drop it”. Yes, our positions are often not the product of thoughtful analysis, we find the facts that support our views. That misses the point. In a healthy democracy we should begin our discussions with a common set of facts. Where you go from there is where we differ.