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The On the Hill: Breaking Down DC podcast is a collection of sharing more about what’s happening in DC without the bias, ways for you to get involved with the US government, and interviews with friends, colleagues who can help pull back the proverbial curtain of Washington, DC. Katherine Getty, host of the OTH podcast, is a 10-year Washingtonian who lives and breathes politics.
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Hi, and welcome to the On the Hill podcast with me, your host, Kathryn Getty. Each Thursday, I'll peel back the curtain of what happens in Washington. From breaking down current events without the bias, to interviews with fellow political nerds, and even, and maybe most importantly, ways for you to get involved with our U.S. government.
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Welcome back to another episode of the On The Hill podcast with me, your host, Catherine Getty. If you're listening in real time and you are, or celebrate American Thanksgiving, today is Thanksgiving. So happy Turkey Day or whatever you celebrate. I wanted to take a moment because I can imagine that politics may come up during your Thanksgiving feast.
So I wanted to take a moment and just kind of remind you and give you an out on on some things. So look, what is great about this constitutional republic, this thing we call the US government, is that we are empowered to have different opinions. We are empowered to debate it out, but we aren't empowered to name call and we aren't empowered or shouldn't. Are we?
and we aren't empowered to make others feel bad for their political views. I think I have recorded this episode similarly in the past. And so I just want to take a moment to remind you, God gave you or your creator gave you two ears and one mouth. I think that's important to remember. We need to listen, seek to understand, not listen to hear. It is so easy during these politically divided times.
to label one another, it's a human response to put someone in a box and make it feel easier so you don't have to deal with it. But Thanksgiving, you may encounter someone who has very different political views from you. And that can be extremely challenging when you feel like you are trying to make your viewpoint be heard and you're not, the other person isn't listening, or you feel like you're going in and...
You think there's gonna be tension. No one likes that feeling. But if we seek to understand why someone feels the way they do or why they voted for the person they did, maybe it provides a little bit more context. Maybe it provides us an understanding into their heart that we hadn't realized before. I am not saying that everyone is going to come to your Thanksgiving table with this in mind, but why don't you be a leader? Why don't you take a chance to say,
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You know, you're really passionate about X. Can you tell me a little bit more why? What if we did that more? What if we were curious? What if we asked questions and sought to understand? Maybe this country would be a little bit better if we think about it and think about the polling or think about how some states shook out. We see we're kind of a 48, 48 country. We're more equally divided than we maybe have ever been. And
name calling or not listening to the other person is not going to move us forward. If we want to be successful as a country, we have got to get back to having conversations. I've seen a lot of things over the last few weeks about putting in boundaries with family members. And look, I am the first advocate for boundaries. If you know anything about me, you know that that's important. But I also know
that we need to find a way to have common ground and cutting every person out of your life that doesn't have the same political views may be really difficult. And, you know, I have friends that are on, that are progressives. I would say I have friends that are pretty conservative. I didn't love them any different on November 6th than I did on election day, November 5th. I think that comes from a place for me where I'm curious. And so,
I think my quick thoughts today are, encourage you to have curious conversations where you seek to understand every time you get that like instinct to maybe label or name call, take a break. I am very pro taking a walk around the block, removing yourself from the situation. But if we stop having conversations and we put...
a boundary up with anyone who has any disagreements with us, where are we gonna end up? We're gonna end up in our silos. And it's not easy, it's uncomfortable. Sometimes it makes the heat rise. Like I can feel it in my chest where I'm like, I feel so different than this person, but that's okay. We live in a country where that is okay and we can voice our differences and we should celebrate our differences, but we shouldn't.
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denigrate or name call. So this is a quick breather episode. I hope you have an amazing Thanksgiving if you celebrate in the States. I know I am an exceptionally grateful for my friends, my family, for this great country, for what's ahead of us. And I hope you take a minute to say, know, so-and-so may have a different opinion, but I'm going to get curious. Get curious today.
Thank you so much for tuning in to this week's episode. promise next week I'll give you some what's happening in Washington. Congress will be back with what is going to be a very busy few weeks before they end out the 118th Congress. It's hard to believe we're even saying that, but I just want to say, when I name everyone that I'm grateful for, I'm also grateful for you. This podcast started as a different podcast, as your good news podcast.
but this podcast is something that I really enjoy getting to share my love of politics and give you some thoughts and musings along the way. I hope that you have time to think about what you're grateful for this holiday season, even if you're gonna have to have a very difficult political conversation. Thank you so much for tuning into this week's episode of the On The Hill podcast. As always, we'll be back next week. If you wanna learn more about myself, my handle is
on Instagram is at Katherine Getty and the podcast handle is on the Hill DC podcast and I will see you next week. Thanks so much.