WHAT NOW?

Buried deep in the last New York Times/Sienna College survey before Election Day, hidden by high-profile questions like, "Who are you going to vote for?" and "What do you think of Trump's plan to deport millions of undocumented immigrants?" was a question that seems even more relevant now that all the votes have been cast. Backers of Donald Trump were asked: "When you think about supporters of Kamala Harris, do you tend to think of them as fellow Americans who you disagree with politically or as the enemy?" A corresponding question was asked of Harris supporters regarding their attitude toward Trump voters. A seemingly endless loop of negative ads, campaigns that were motivated, in part or in whole, by fear, and headlines that reminded us daily how tight the race was and how deeply divided we were, had ratcheted our collective anxiety to a level that left many of us more stressed-out than energized.

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With the stress rising and Election Day looming large, tense and anxious citizens were asked whether they viewed members of the opposite political party as enemies or simply as fellow Americans with whom they diff ered on social and political issues. Was the divide in the American soul as deep and as personal as some had come to believe it was? You might be surprised by their answers. The overwhelming majority of respondents — 83% of the supporters of Donald Trump and 77% of the backers of Kamala Harris — said they thought of people on the other side of our yawning political divide not as enemies but as fellow Americans with whom they disagreed politically.

Donald Trump notoriously tagged the press "the enemy of the people" and slammed the "deep state" as "the enemy within." But his own supporters refused to label friends and family, neighbors and colleagues enemies. The Times reported that "just 11 percent of Mr.

Trump's supporters described voters who chose Ms. Harris as the enemy. .

.. Ms.

Harris's supporters are slightly more likely (16%) to describe voters who prefer to Mr. Trump as the enemy." The Times/Sienna College survey was not an outlier.

Its finding was consistent with a 2022 Pew Research Center survey in which just 15% of the respondents said that the political party a person supports is an indication of that person's character, whether he or she is a good or bad person. Even as Election Day approached and the anxiety ramped up, most Americans continued to think of their neighbors as, well, neighbors with whom they diff ered, strongly sometimes, heatedly on occasion. But not as enemies.

We of all people should not have been surprised. We saw what happened in the mountains when, in the fl ash of a fl ood, houses became as fl imsy as the dueling yard signs that were swept downriver and vulnerable lives were in peril. When the water receded and roads needed to be cleared and debris hauled away, there were no For Republican Use Only chainsaws, no For Democrats Only backhoes.

There were only neighbors helping neighbors. Strangers helping strangers. Americans helping Americans.

Like other religious and civic groups throughout the region, the church where my wife and I are members sent truckloads of supplies that were to be distributed to people whose lives had been upended by Hurricane Helene. No religious restrictions were placed on the goods. When folks lined up at distribution centers to receive food and water for themselves and their families, they were not asked who they intended to vote for or whether they were Republican or Democrat.

They didn't have to show a picture ID. The only question they were asked was, "What do you need?" This is not to minimize our political diff erences, which are real and significant. It is to suggest that while we take our politics seriously — and should — beneath our commitment to a particular set of values and to specific political and social positions there is a common identity as Americans and a substratum of humanity that enables us to rise above party and, on occasion, even above ourselves.

Richard Groves lives and writes in Winston-Salem. Get local news delivered to your inbox!.