This article is part of a campaign focused on explaining how government works and encouraging dialogue and understanding among Butler County residents.

Geno Mariotti and George Pikoulas, Butlerites to their core, may embody both the unity and the stark divide that has shaped our community for years now.

When the two frequent letters-to-the editor writers, Geno — a Democrat — and George — a Republican, met at the Butler Eagle’s offices recently to discuss their viewpoints on various topics, similar fundamental beliefs as well as staunch disagreements on political issues were on display.

Despite the disagreements, they left saying they held no animosity toward one another, agreeing that they’d be more than willing to sit down and have a beer with the other.

The conversation lasted for just over an hour, with both men shaking hands and exiting the room together.

In Butler County, leaders and residents work together, despite differing stances on politics. Families, organizations, clubs and local governments often function with members who hold varying political beliefs.

But talking politics and working through those differences seems off the table, according to those with insight into the matter, like John Neyman, a pastoral counselor from Sarver.

“People avoid politics, they don’t like to talk about it at the dinner table,” Neyman said in a January interview.

The conversation between Geno and George, held shortly before the inauguration here at the Butler Eagle, traded a dinner table for a conference room and the relatives who’d typically serve as spectators to any dinnertime debate for a moderator and reporter instead.

The conversation that unfolded showed how both men come from immigrant families, grew up working class and made a career and supported their own families before retiring. Their viewpoints, however, were quite opposite.

Geno grew up on the South Side of Butler, when it was heavily populated by those of Italian and Polish descent. Geno was born in 1932, at the height of the Great Depression, and grew up through it and World War II.

He said he was drawn into the Democratic Party, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt was president, and he’s since taken issue over the years with various politicians and their tax policies.

He has written letters to the editor for 20 years. He said worries about the poor, because “he was one of them.”

Gino previously worked at Sears, before coming back to Butler.

“Our childhood was wonderful. The playground was our second home, we swam in the creek, we walked everywhere, we went to the Saturday afternoon matinee movies, it was a heck of a time,” Geno said.

Income inequality, benefits for the poor and elderly, Medicare and Medicaid are his biggest concerns.

George, a Republican, is of 100% Greek heritage. His parents left Greece because of the government at the time, as they looked for new opportunities.

He tells stories of going back to Greece at age 13 and sitting in a crowded town square, when everybody stopped and stayed silent when the government police came through and looked for “enemies of the state.”

He was taught to work hard and earn your keep.

A fellow Greek told his father that Butler was a great place to start a family and business.

George served in the Army, in Demilitarized Zone in Korea and seeing how North Korea treated its people shaped his views.

He said he believes you are responsible for your own success and disagrees with Geno about positions on taxes.

He isn’t all that interested in candidates’ personal lives, he said he worries more about what they will do for our country.

Both Geno and George espouse a belief in American workers, and standing up for the little guy and the middle class. Neither express trust in the government.

This is something that can be considered common. Over a year before the 2024 presidential election, the Pew Research Center found that only 4% of U.S. adults thought our political systems were working well and that just 16% trust the federal government.

They both smiled with each other as they talked about Butler, their childhoods, their homes. They raised their voices at each other over politics, more specifically about figures like Presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama.

The consensus was that it’s the politicians in Washington, D.C., who have divided us. George and Geno just disagree on who in particular that means.

During a discussion of values that turned into an argument, Geno emphasized the importance of funding infrastructure and programs that help middle class Americans, while expressing concern over small numbers of families controlling a great amount of America’s wealth.

He didn’t hesitate to lay blame, saying that while Obama’s first two years of control saw bills passed that helped Americans, Republicans blocked everything in the remainder of his presidency. He says Trump is bringing us closer to fascism.

“What really gets to me is how our politicians in Washington are divided, totally, on every issue,” Geno said.

George agrees with Geno that we need to take care of the poor and those who need help, and that our educational system should provide opportunities for our children, but says our schools aren’t doing that. He said schools are putting social issues ahead of education. He is also critical of depiction in textbooks and other spaces of the Founding Fathers as slave owners.

From a national standpoint, he said he believes trials involving Trump have not been fair, that rights are being stripped away from us, and that Americans are afraid to speak out without receiving disagreement and hatred.

“To me, the government should stay out of our lives, they should strictly stick to the Constitution, the government needs to stay within those parameters,” George said. “Once they go out of those parameters, they go toward this socialist approach to running our country.

“That’s the first phase before we get to communism, and communism is nothing more than extreme socialism.”

The conversation was intended to be a moderated one, where both Geno and George could say their piece.

The men were asked questions about their past, their values and their political beliefs over the span of 35 minutes.

But at that point, the moderation no longer mattered.

Before answering one question, Geno insisted he say his piece, pulling out a list of reasons on what he considered “critical issues,” and why he opposes the Trump administration.

By this point, the conversation had turned into the two gentlemen speaking over each other, as well as the moderator, while disagreeing over the politics, the politicians like Trump and Biden, legal trials, and where they get their information from, rather than their shared values surrounding community and country.

And yet, the conversation kept coming back around to the same topics, like corruption and distrust of our leaders.

These men weren’t afraid to talk politics.

Despite tension in the room, there was clear common ground. Both men dislike what they see as corruption within our politics. They both avoid discussing political topics and issues at home, with family and friends.

George said he is very thankful that we gave him and Geno the opportunity to discuss their beliefs, believing it’s a blessing that we can talk to people about what we say.

Geno and George have different opinions and viewpoints, and they draw different conclusions from the facts, regardless of what they are.

“I thought it was very nice of us to reveal how and why we write our letters, I think it cleared up why we do it,” George said. “I was not prepared to counter argue like that. I have no animosity toward him. I think he’s a really good man. I think we are just on different pages.”

Geno said it’s never been about George and anyone like him. He’s written letters over the years that have caused people to call him names — and he handles it.

But he grew up as a child of the Great Depression, and just turned 93. He remembers when Butler had 4,800 employees at Armco, and what Butler used to be like. He can never change his mind, and what he sees frightens him, but it has nothing to do with people like George, who he gets along with despite disagreements.

When both men spoke with the Butler Eagle in the days following the sit-down discussion, George said to “tell Geno his Greek friend says hello,” while Geno expressed that he hopes all is well with George.