When your roommate is from across the aisle

Forget reaching across the aisle — College freshmen David Barr Engel and Jesse Blanco only have to reach across the dorm room to encounter someone whose political beliefs differ from their own.

The two roommates, both members of the Politics and Social Change residential program in Fisher College House, have each spent the months leading up to the election campaigning for their respective candidate, Barr Engel for Clinton and Blanco for Trump.

It did not take long once the two moved in to their dorm together for them to discover the other’s political affiliations. The two can both vividly recall the first time that they realized that they were on opposing sides of the upcoming election.

“I remember seeing Jesse’s prom-posal on Instagram. He was dressed up as Donald Trump and his sign said something like ‘Will you be the Melania to my Trump,’” Barr Engel said. “At first I thought it was just a joke, but then I saw he retweeted [...] Ann Coulter, and I realized that he was actually a Trump supporter.”

Blanco recalled move-in day back in August, when he was in their room alone and trying to get a sense of who his new roommate was and how they would get along. Blanco saw a purple-sleeved arm sticking out of the pages of the book across the room. When he pulled out the book, a power-suited Hillary Clinton figurine fell out, and he read the title, “Haikus about Hillary.”

“I was actually glad he was a Hillary supporter,” Blanco said. “I actually would have more issues if he was for Cruz or Jeb Bush.”

The two went into election night with a similar nervousness, but their reactions to how the events of Tuesday night unfolded could not be more different.

Blanco, a former intern at Trump Tower, was invited to the election viewing party at the Hilton Midtown. Come election night, the Trump Tower interns and supporters were filled with a “cautious optimism,” Blanco said.

“When they announced North Carolina and we saw it [North Carolina] go red, I knew that the work I had done both in New York City …and here in Philly was worth it. I knew I was part of something bigger, part of a movement of people who truly care about America and who want to make America better,” Blanco said.

Barr Engel, on the other hand, started receiving calls of panic at around 8 p.m., he said. With each successive state turning red on the electoral map, Barr Engel’s anxiety and worry grew. When Trump won Ohio, “I was in intense denial. I was shaking, my heart was racing. It hit me that the worst was now more than extremely likely,” Barr Engel said.

Blanco said he is looking forward to president-elect Trump opening doors and establishing communication with communities of color and people who have become alienated from his campaign through the “stereotypical blanket message” perpetuated by some of Trump’s following.

Barr Engel’s sentiment going into the next four years, however, is one of nervousness rather than excitement. Due to the “precarious position” of both the Democratic Party and the nation, Barr Engel fears how the Trump administration will shape “an incredibly delicate” international climate their foreign policy in the years to come.

If there is one thing that gives Barr Engel hope for the future, it is the dialogue and relationship he has with his roommate despite their political differences, he said.

Over the past few days, the two have been talking a lot about the upcoming confirmations, on their visions of the DNC and their goals for Congress. Even though they “fundamentally disagree” on many issues, both Barr Engel and Blanco feel that their aspirations for America and the American people are actually quite similar.

“The fact that we can still get along and talk about politics, even though we were both active on opposite sides of this election, is one of the few things that can give me hope going into these next four years,” Barr Engel said.