Have you ever held onto a belief from childhood that shaped how you saw an entire group of people? And what would it take to let that go?
Central Florida Public Media and StoryCorps are bringing together strangers with differing political views for guided One Small Step conversations.
Susan Costley, a 77-year-old woman who is now bedbound, said she grew up believing it was safer to say a swear word than to say the word “Republican.”
“I had no idea what a Republican was,” Costley said. “Just the word was bigger than any monster or horror story. I just knew that the world was going to end if the Republicans won.”
Costley said her dad, who started law school but never finished, would pick a subject and the two of them would argue opposite sides for 10 minutes. At the end of that 10 minutes, they would swap sides.
Craig Albertson, 30, grew up Republican.
He was raised in New York City, watching Fox News every night with his father, the person he turned to with his questions.
“It got to the point where every night my mom would be like, ‘All right, what's Craig going to ask Kenny, my father, tonight?” Albertson said. “Over time, I've kind of started to see the world a little bit differently, so I could look at Fox News and say, ‘This is wrong, this is wrong.’ When I talk to people, I really feel more politically homeless.”
Meet Craig Albertson
Craig Albertson, now a resident of New Smyrna Beach, grew up with conservative values in New York and eventually joined the College Republicans.
“There was a period of time where I felt emotionally validated that my side was right and the other side wasn't,” he said.
After entering the workforce, he said he began to see himself as a moderate, even if his family did not.
“I do feel the Democrats have gone very much off the rails in addition to the Republicans,” Albertson said. “I consider myself a moderate now, because there are some things that I have noticed, especially with the Trump administration. I do feel like in today's day and age, the Supreme Court runs the country, because anything that Trump does or anything that Biden does just goes right to the courts, and that it just goes usually to the Supreme Court.”
He said that perspective shapes how he sees much of society today.
It’s not just about politics, Albertson said it’s about how people navigate life and measure success, which he believes comes down to money.
“People just want to make money, because that's security, and we live in such a comfort society,” he said. “There's a good element of safety in today's society, even though it doesn't feel like that, and people don't really know where to turn to deal with everything being so easy, they find other things to get angry at. Money doesn't buy happiness, but it can provide the circumstances for happiness.”
Meet Susan Costley
Costley is bed-bound and at the age of t 77, she lives with her daughter and grandchildren, along with an aide who helps care for her.
She said she sees more cruelty and a focus on money in today’s government, while programs like social work and home health aides aren’t getting the support they need.
“Because I'm bed-bound, I have access to home health aides, one of the very best ones had to leave because she was here through humanitarian parole from Cuba, and that program was stopped,” she said. “Her working permit was taken back, she can't work anymore, and she used her money to send to Cuba to help her mother, who is disabled and can't get medications. I saw how hard she worked; she's an asset to this country.”
Costley said her father had rigid political views, and she didn’t get a well-rounded perspective until she was older.
“I remember the night Kennedy was elected,” she said. “I kept getting up and going to the living room and asking my dad, did the Republican win? Did the Republican win? I was scared to death.”
When Costley struck out on her own, she gained new experiences.
“I went out in the world and got jobs, a lot of times in social services. My brother was a social worker, and I idolized him. He marched with Dr. King on the second march. I grew up really feeling that we are responsible to help others in the world, in our country, and in our neighborhood,” she said.
“It's up to everyone to try to make things better. I think the animosity in politics today is worse than anything I've seen in 76 years.”
The Takeaway
There was not tension between the two, but a sense of questioning underlined the conversation. Albertson listened closely as Costley shared her many stories and before the conversation wrapped , he offered a piece of advice: provide more context when making a point.
“You kind of keep hammering around the point of, it's the social programs, it's the social programs, and the way I see it is, well, you're just telling me the social programs, but you don't put the research in there,” Albertson said. “If you just say something, I would say maybe help give an example, maybe also a data point or two and the definition, and when you start building that, I think you’ll have a lot more people to help you see more of your point of view.”
“I appreciate that, thank you,” Costly said.
Albertson added that this approach could help reach across the aisle.
“I do feel like that's something a lot of the left do, but if you dig a little bit deeper, you meet more conservative people where they are because they’re more logical,” he said.
Costly said she could illustrate a specific instance, and it’s personal.
“My granddaughter is 30, she has two little boys, she's a single mom, and she's training to be a dental technician, but they cut the funding—not completely, but for the funds to provide daycare,” she said. “So my daughter works from home for very long hours, and my granddaughter needs to go to school. It's just two days a week, but there's no place else for the little boys to be.”
She said while the children are doing schoolwork, her daughter and granddaughter take turns watching them, with her personal health aide pitching in when possible.
“A little bit more funding would help women like my granddaughter to be able to get to the point where she's making money and can provide a good life for her children,” Costly said.
Albertson acknowledged that he, too, had room to learn and needed to hear more stories like hers, even as he offered his advice.
“I feel like I need to hear more, and this was a very good conversation to kind of kick that off,” Albertson said. “So thank you for bringing that out in me, I do need to hear more because I just do.”
“Craig, I could tell you stories for hours,” she said.
“Oh, I don't doubt that at all,” he said.
“As I said earlier, I grew up thinking that you were safer saying a really bad swear word than saying ‘Republican,’ and I've gotten past that. I'm still a strong Democrat, but I'm not afraid of the Republicans as much as I was as a child,” she said. “I'm happy I got to meet you.”
