🦄 Hello, hello! Has Mariah Carey already made her way into your playlists? Asking for a friend.

This week I’m exposing loneliness as a threat to democracy, commenting on the ugly truth behind beauty, and sharing tons of exciting events happening before the end of the year.

Thank you to those of you who have become a part of our circle. This is only the beginning!

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Dare to connect,

Andy

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LONELINESS AS A THREAT TO DEMOCRACY

Is every newsletter you receive today likely acknowledging the U.S. election in some way? Yes. But I promise mine isn’t about the politics—it’s about the people (oh the irony…).

I lived in Washington, D.C. during the 2016 U.S. presidential election—perhaps the most contested of all time before today’s. A few weeks before Election Day, one of my professors forecasted Trump would win based on models involving policy, economics, history, markets, and what I’ll now describe as a ‘belonging analysis’.

When asked, “How likely are you to change your vote before Election Day?” most of Trump’s supporters would answer “Unlikely”. Clinton’s supporters, on the other hand, remained more open to changing their minds. This strong, vocal, and often violent loyalty from Trump’s supporters turned out to be a leading indicator of the election’s outcome.

As a non-U.S. citizen, I mostly felt curious about this. Why were Trump’s supporters so intensely loyal to him? When I’d ask those willing to share, I’d seldom get a coherent response. And that’s when it hit me—theirs was a loud, emotional endeavor. An individual cry disguised as a collective identity. A desire to belong.

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Fast forward to today, and I’m now asking a very similar, if not identical, question to that of 8 years ago: Is there a link between loneliness and today’s polarized political climate?