by Julian Adorney

I was in Kenya during their last national election, in 2022. And it was scary.

We were warned not to leave our house except in a secure vehicle, because political violence could break out at any moment. This warning proved prescient: a fight erupted on a major street and prompted police to fire bullets into the air. We were told that there would probably be riots after the election. There were riots. Someone died a few blocks from my wife’s apartment.

As bad as it was, this was far from Kenya’s worst election cycle. In 2007, the losing party claimed electoral manipulation (a claim with which international observers agreed). Raila Odinga, the losing candidate, encouraged his followers to protest in the streets. The protests turned violent. 1,500 people died. Many were shot by police. The situation became bad enough that the International Criminal Court vowed to step in and punish those responsible if Kenyan officials were not willing to clean their own house.

It is through this lens that I view our current political climate in America. Assassination attempts. Rage and fear. In 2021, 75% of Democrats, and 78% of Republicans, viewed members of the other side as a “clear and present danger” to our great country.

We are walking down a dark road. And my experience living in Kenya makes me scared for where that road might lead.

But every road forks, and I believe, in the aftermath of the election, that we are at just such a fork. We could choose to take a different road. This is the road of mutual reconciliation. It is the road of Wilk Wilkinson’s Truth and Trust Project, which aims to make peace between proponents and opponents of lockdowns even while airing both sides’ mistakes. It is the road of the Braver Angels Way: “We treat people who disagree with us with honesty, dignity and respect.”

This is the road taken by John McCain, when he told his supporters that Obama was “a decent family man [and] citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues.” It’s the road taken by Obama, when he told a crowd that McCain “genuinely wants to serve America’s national interest” and that “I will honor Senator McCain’s [military] service.”

This road is harder. It requires that we push back on our hate and on our fear. As some of you know, I dealt with a lot of abuse in my past. I know what it is to hate, and to fear. I know how justified those emotions can be. I know what it’s like to not want to push back against them.

The road deeper into those emotions may feel easy. It may feel justified. But all the same I do not think we should take it. Because if my experience with the political violence in Kenya taught me anything, it’s that we won’t like where that road leads.

Author is a Braver Angels volunteer and founder of Heal the West.