Kelli Scott: Venturing outside the Seattle bubble

Since the election, American journalists have wandered the remote corners of this country in a sort of daze, a state of shocked self-reflection, recrimination and hand-wringing.

How could the press have gotten this so wrong? Why didn’t we see Donald Trump’s win coming? You there, Third-Generation Western Pennsylvania Coal Miner: What about Mr. Trump appealed to you? You, Mrs. Suburban Stay-at-Home Soccer Mom: Why did 53 percent of white women vote for Trump? Rural America: Please for the love of all that is holy explain to us what just happened here.

In March, 22 people from King County, including a handful of Seattle-area journalists, set off on a five-hour drive down to Sherman County, Oregon, to talk to folks in the rural wheat-farming community about politics and life. The two regions are political opposites. King County voted 74 percent for Hillary Clinton. Sherman County voted 74 percent for Donald Trump.

Seattle news website Crosscut sent longtime writer Knute Berger down with the group. Here are a few of Berger’s takeaways from the trip, as recorded in his Crosscut column:

“One Shermanite suggested that if Seattle enviros want to reintroduce wolves into the Northwest, maybe they should be put in Seattle’s city parks. Perhaps that would revise urban liberals’ views on gun control.”

“In a county with 1,700 people, there’s no need for Seattle-style process or bureaucracy. This shapes political views: smaller government, more people problem solving, leave solutions to the locals.”

“Our differences broaden our minds, but also sharpen our thinking. So does spending some time seeing the world from another perspective. Trite, but true.”

Now Berger and Crosscut photographer Matt McKnight are on a seven-day road trip across Washington state, following Highway 2 through some of the most geographically and politically diverse terrain in the country. That’s what brought them to Wenatchee this week, where I sat down for coffee with them to talk about north-central Washington. Berger told me they are on a quest to answer the questions, “What is it that Seattle needs to know? What is it we don’t get” about this part of the state? I asked them how insightful they thought this sort of zip-in-zip-out reporting trip could be. I mean, really, can a Seattle journalist truly understand a place after a day trip and a couple conversations with locals on the street?

“Drive-by journalism is always inherently risky,” Berger said. “I try not to make sweeping statements.” Plus, he added, “It’s better than not coming.”

Very good point.

Our state has always been politically divided along the Cascade Crest. East of the mountains, we have grown only redder in recent years, election results tell us, as Puget Sound cities turn a deeper shade of blue. Our differences can seem stark, especially in such an acutely political moment. Berger said he thinks this is unhealthy for the state in the long run: “I just don’t think that’s wholesome.”

He said he hopes trips like the one he took to Oregon and the one that brought him to Wenatchee this week will start to open up a dialogue and bring people together.

“We’re looking for signs of hope that we can find ways of getting along,” Berger said.

Talking to people who challenge our way of thinking can make us change the way we think about an issue, or it can clarify and strengthen our already-held beliefs. Either way, communicating outside our bubbles is a good thing for the media, for the country, for all of us.