Time passes slowly for Linwood Holland. Daylight saving time didn’t help; he deplores the extra hour he will now have to wait to know the results of the 2024 election. This morning, he and his wife were first and second in their polling station in the 35th district of Philadelphia.

In a city where Republicans are outnumbered by a margin of 7-1Holland — a 64-year-old Republican neighborhood leader in this majority-Democratic city — is a rarity.

Yet every election day – no matter how slim the chances of victory for his party’s chosen candidate – he dutifully embarks on what he knows some might consider a quixotic odyssey: providing support to Republican poll workers in communities where the actual number of Republicans is large. voters can be extremely small.

I woke before dawn to meet Holland outside his house, on a block shaded by sycamore trees in Lawncrest. A neighbor was casually raking leaves. I drove shotgun in his white Mercedes, zigzagging down Rising Sun Avenue while Holland dropped off envelopes at four different polling places in the 35th Precinct for Republican Party observers.

Inside each cardstock envelope was a certificate. The most dramatic thing he sorted out: In 2020, an election worker ate a Republican observer certificate. Holland recalled the incident and laughed. “We had to go to the commissioner’s office and get another one. »

At each stop, a steady stream of voters came through the gymnasium and church doors. “Nothing compared to the crowds in 2008 and 2012,” Holland said, referring to the city’s response to Barack Obama’s candidacy in those years. He attributes the dwindling crowds to the proliferation of mail-in ballots rather than a lack of enthusiasm for the vice president. Kamala Harris.

In the 35th district, where he works on behalf of the GOP, relations are cordial between Democratic and Republican voters. While the election results may still be uncertain for several days, one thing seems certain: The future of our democracy depends not just on words of bipartisanship, but also on active conversations across political divides.

When we dare to do it, it can be strangely nourishing: an antidote to despair, unhappiness and unhappiness. everything that meets us on the other side of this election.

I’m not affiliated with any party, but I would describe my own politics as center-left, and in the four hours we spent together, I was surprised by the unexpected common ground between us.

21st century problems require 21st century solutions – on this we agree. Holland wishes there were younger Republicans on the ballot instead of Donald Trump. “I would definitely vote for someone younger, because why would you accept the rules of someone who is pretty set in their ways and doesn’t see the world as changing?” he asked. I too am exhausted by Trump’s form of leadership.

We do not agree on abortion. “Roe v. Wade was put in place, in my opinion, to settle scores, just to make everyone equal,” he said. “I believe that everyone has their own uniqueness,” Holland added, “so now that everything is handed over to the states, people don’t realize how much power they have… You have the power to sue your elected officials and make sure they do it the way you want in your state.

Hearing this, I couldn’t help but think of Josseli Barnica, who died in 2021 in a Texas hospital after being told it would be a crime to intervene in her miscarriage. She does not have the power to raise her chosen ones from the grave. I can’t either Amber Thurman And Candi Miller in Georgia. Pregnancy is dangerous and the future of access to life-saving reproductive health care is the order of the day. (Yet even on abortion, a topic I care deeply about, it was helpful to hear a different perspective.)

I may be in the minority of liberals here, but I really enjoy listening to people I disagree with. It helps me test my own arguments and question my own beliefs. It allows me to ask myself not only what I believe, but why I believe it.

Holland, who retired from the Philadelphia Parking Authority in 2018, has lived in the 35th Ward for a quarter century. He told me it was a majority Republican neighborhood until about 10 years ago.

At one point during our visit, Holland approached and whispered that he thought Tuesday’s result would be a landslide…for Trump.

“A lot of people are hesitant to vote for him because of the cancel culture and because they work downtown,” he said. When people look at Holland, a black man, they quickly assume he is a Democrat. He’s used to that. Most of the people he works with at the Philadelphia Federal Credit Union don’t know his party affiliation and he doesn’t bother to correct them.

Some of Holland’s friends who had voted early spent Election Day at Topgolf, perfecting their swing. He can’t join them, he says wistfully, but civic duty is more important. He is motivated by “the need to help people.” If we can help people, it helps us too. »

It’s easy to think that if the chosen candidate loses, the world as we know it will end. Yes, everyone is worried. Yes, we won’t know the results of this chaotic election for days. But now more than ever is the perfect time to practice showing up in front of our neighbors, regardless of how they vote.