This year, Central Florida Public Media and StoryCorp’s One Small Step Initiative have been bringing you conversations between strangers with differing life and political views.
The day after the election, we brought together Sean Roberts, a Republican and Trump supporter, to sit down with Dave Bennett, a liberal who supports Kamala Harris.
“Throughout the last four years, there's been a lot of tension in our country and in the world for that matter,” Roberts said. “And the type of person I am, I like to teach, educate people, and show them a different perspective if they don't share the same perspective as me.”
Roberts sat down with Bennett, who identifies as part of the LGBTQ community.
“I was a speech teacher, among other things, and I like to talk,” Bennett said. “But I also, because of being a teacher, like to educate people about my views and my background, and hopefully we reach common grounds and understand one another better.”
Meet Sean Roberts
Sean Roberts, 53, has an anti-bullying organization called Amrak - karma spelled backwards.
Roberts, who identifies as Black, is the oldest of two siblings, raised by a single mother in New York City and Long Island. Roberts said he first was exposed to conservative views when he went to prep school.
Roberts said he’s had to make adjustments in his spending as gas prices went up - switching from a BMW to a Toyota.
“And I'm conservative on my spending, and I, you know, have a budget," Roberts said. "I follow that budget, but things just got a little different as far as for me, the gas. And so I had to make those financial adjustments, right?”
Meet Dave Bennett
Dave Bennett, 77, was adopted at 16 months old.
He’s been with his current spouse for 23 years, and married for 11 years. Between the two of them, they have nine children and 12 grandchildren.
During the interview, Bennett sported long white hair and beard. He plays Santa through his church.
He’s a former Republican, but left the party because he was unhappy with “warmongering,” and because he felt the party put too many restrictions on how people live their lives.
As a gay man, he’s worried that the ability to be married could be revoked for him, or stripped from others in the community going forward.
“And right now, because of project 2025, I'm scared,” Bennett said. “You know, I'm 77, we live on a small pension and Social Security, and we have Medicare. And so we're really scared because of what is outlined in Project 2025 that that's all going to go away, because that's the goal.”
The takeaway
Both Bennett and Roberts agreed that it's important for Americans to have conversations together, even when they don’t agree.
Roberts said he’s been to 10 Trump rallies, and never felt out of place. He described them as feeling like a family reunion.
He said he doesn’t speak for Trump.
“To be honest with you, and the way he goes about things, I can't speak for him,” Roberts said. “I don't agree with everything he says at all, but there's a lot of things I do agree with, right? And you may disagree, and that's okay, but I love America.”
“As do we all,” Bennett said.
“Because of the freedoms that are here, and I don't want us to lose that, because if we lose that, we're in trouble,” Roberts continued.
Bennett said his hope for the future:
“That we remain a democracy, and we respect everyone’s rights, and support one another however best we can support them so they can live their best lives,” Bennett said.
Roberts added: “I agree with you on that one.”
StoryCorps’ One Small Step and the Radio Station Hubs are made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
