Thank you for your inspiring essay and your service to our country.

While I appreciate your sentiments on bridge building, I am at a loss on how to build bridges with Trump supporters.

While I can debate conservative versus liberal government funding models or corruption in political systems, how can I build a bridge to racists, white supremacists, misogynists, or religious zealots who want their religion imposed upon society? These are hateful, angry and fearful people who disregard facts in favor of propaganda and alternate realities. How can you build a bridge when the very facts are disputed and “whataboutism” passes for intelligent debate? How can I respect their beliefs?

Could you have built a bridge to Hitler and his generals if you lived in Germany in the 1930’s? Yes, the German people were like people everywhere who wanted a better life for themselves and their children. Good jobs, a roof over their head, good schools and parks.

Yet 40% of them were supporters of Hitler, who was not only evil but insane. How would you have built a bridge to them? Just speaking out against Hitler’s ideas could get you sent to a prison camp or killed. The smartest of the Germans that had the resources simply left the country.

I believe the smarter, more educated and better informed one becomes, the more likely they are to be liberal and progressive forward thinkers. Mainly because time only moves in one direction and that is forward. Holding on to antiquated belief systems that don’t work anymore can never improve the human condition.

The Allies had to destroy Germany, break the will of the people and elimínate Hitler before we could rebuild the country in our image. Who is going to come to our rescue?

I am curious if you were a Trump supporter before enrolling at Yale? How have your strongly held beliefs changed? Do you believe our universities have a liberal bias and are not interested in conservative viewpoints? And lastly, what do we do to reach the people who cannot go to places like Yale, either because it is unaffordable or they do not have the mental capacity to do the work required to succeed?

Did you encounter any young people who were supporters of Trump? Did you build any bridges with them?