General Discussion

You've given me food for thought and reflection.

The type of kindness that makes people bring meals when you're sick and helps you with other things really depends on the neighborhood and how outgoing you are in getting to know your neighbors. I live in a neighborhood populated not by right wingers, as far as I know, and the neighbors are lovely. We are very fortunate where we are. There are also walking paths here, which makes people interact more than in any neighborhood I've lived in before, ever. (I think the being outside in itself makes the people more cheerful and friendly, too.)

In our last two neighborhoods, people were nice but didn't engage much. We barely knew most of them, but we also didn't attend the Catholic churches that were really the centers of the neighborhoods (especially if you had kids who attended the school, which ours did not). There were some signs for Republican candidates in one of them, but it was generally moderate. Even the Trumpers were friendly neighbors (despite our conflicting signs). But the relationships were superficial, for us. My husband and I both went through surgeries in both neighborhoods and I don't remember anyone helping out in any way through those unless they were also Facebook friends and signed up for meal trains organized by a non-neighbor friend.

On a day-to-day basis, I see evidence of very bad manners only while driving and I see it in litter on streets. I think it would be impossible to classify the people misbehaving in these ways politically--many may even be oblivious to politics. In person, all strangers I encounter enough to speak to are nice and kind, or at least polite, if a bit tired.

(I currently live in the Midwest, a blue city in a red state, middle class.)