The 7 types of U.S. votersPublished inThe Medium BlogSent as aNewsletter3 min readJust now-- T-1 day until whats shaping up to be one of the closest elections in U.S. historyIssue #199: a hike with George H.W. Bush + doing hard thingsBy Harris SockelIf all you do is read headlines today, you may end up believing two things: (a) America is divided, and (b) there are two types of voters: red and blue.Thats why this essay by Kathleen Murphy felt, to me, like coming up for air. Murphy cites a 2018 project by the nonprofit More In Common which identified seven finer-grained voter types. You can take a quiz to learn which one you are:Progressive Activists (8%): Government should make the world fairer.Traditional Liberals (11%): Government is about tolerance and compromise.Passive Liberals (15%): Eh, I believe in individual freedom but dont think the government does very much.Politically Disengaged (26%): Im just trying to get by. I dont care about all this.Moderates (15%): Activists are out of control. All I want is law, order, and peace.Traditional Conservatives (19%): The America I remember is slipping away.Devoted Conservatives (6%): Dont tread on me.The middle four groups (traditional and passive liberals, moderates, and the politically disengaged) represent two thirds of voters. Two-thirds! Surveyors discovered they believe in most of the same things: safeguards for reproductive rights, protections from discrimination based on identity, and more stringent gun background checks. They believe in compromise and are tired of hyper-partisanship.If thats you (which, statistically, it probably is), this week, try not to get caught up in the dominant story focused on extremes. Loud people and ideas will always win in a media environment that capitalizes on attention. The hidden truth is that, at least in a few fundamental ways, we tend to agree on more than we think.A pre-election palate cleanser: Hiking the sequoias with George H.W. BushWhen I received a phone invitation to hike with President Bush through the Giant Sequoias, writes Michael Hodgson, my initial reaction was, Right, who is this, really?Thirty-two years ago, Hodgson was one of six nature journalists invited to traipse with the president through the forest before he signed a proclamation ordering the preservation of Californias Giant Sequoia. Its the tallest tree in the world some can grow 279 feet tall, roughly half the height of Seattles Space Needle.Hodgsons favorite memory: Watching then-Secretary of State James Baker and his wife eagerly smelling the bark of a Jeffrey pine, seemingly the only members of the group fully aware of how special it was to walk through a silent forest surrounded by 3,000-year-old redwoods. Your daily dose of practical wisdomIts easier for a team to do a hard thing that really matters than to do an easy, incremental thing that doesnt matter much. Impact is motivating.