My good friend Charlie is a Penn State football fanatic and he takes a small team to at least one game every year in Happy Valley, where we meet his childhood buddy, Tommy.

This year, Charlie made one rule: no politics.

Tommy happens to be a Trump supporter and Charlie wanted to make sure politics couldn’t ruin the weekend. Very good for me. I was disheartened to see all the Trump signs as we drove through rural Pennsylvania, as well as the homemade Trump billboards on cornfields and cow pastures. I needed a break.

We never talked politics, so I don’t know why Tommy voted for Trump. He grew up in rural Pennsylvania, like Charlie, where most people don’t have much, so inflation runs deep. The scenery is beyond beautiful, but the houses are small, the cars are not luxurious, and if you want a good cup of strong coffee at a restaurant, you have to turn around and head back to Jersey.

But let me tell you about Tommy. He is now 69 years old, with nine grandchildren and a thick black mustache. He lives in a modest house with close neighbors and grows twice as many tomatoes as he needs to share with them. He’s volunteered at the local fire department for years, and since he’s too old to climb ladders these days, he organizes the local fundraiser, which brought in $50,000 this year. Once that was done, he offered to clean the bathrooms.

He helps a neighbor slaughter a cow every now and then and gets a share of the 500 pounds of meat for his freezer. He stops regularly to check on the 87-year-old widow who lives nearby. “We’re all watching her,” he told me. “She sprained her ankle the other day, so she needs help.”

Hearing this was a balm to my soul. Because polls tell us that Americans hate each other today, regardless of their political differences. Just under half of us think civil war is likely, according to a recent Marist poll. About half also think the other side is not only wrong, but “downright evil,” according to a Johns Hopkins poll.

Marriage rates between Democrats and Republicans are plummeting and now represent only 4 percent of all marriages, according to a survey of 3,000 Americans by the American Family Survey at Brigham Young University. This will deepen the gap for another generation if we are not careful.

We will never get out of this impasse and find at least some common ground unless we soften our hearts. I have no intention of changing my views on democracy, climate change, or economic justice. But I want to remind you that the Trump coalition includes millions of good people who share tomatoes and take care of old widows. This creates at least some room for discussion.

I had a great time at the pregame party, and there’s no doubt that many of them were Trumpers like Tommy. We’re talking football fanatics of a breed a Giants fan can only imagine. Kick-off was set for 8 p.m. and when we arrived to start the party around 2 p.m., the parking lots near the stadium were already packed. I was relieved to see no Trump signs, no MAGA chants, no political evidence at all. Everyone needed a break.

Charlie has been coming to the same booked spot for three decades, so it’s now his second home. He was hugging old friends and sharing tequila shots, telling the same old stories and wearing a really stupid Penn State hat. His friends played a game of cornhole and let us use it for hours. It was a big family.

Yes, there are limits to this. It’s much easier to find common ground at a party than in the halls of Congress, and our differences run deep.

Still, I wish the 47 percent of Americans who consider the other side “downright evil” could have been there, and maybe shared a photo or two with a friendly stranger. In this dark time, it gave me hope.

More: Chronicles of Tom Moran

Tom Moran can be contacted at [email protected] or (973) 986-6951. Follow him on Twitter @tomamoran. Find NJ.com Notice on Facebook.

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