As is the case with most Thanksgiving dinners, families will discuss politics. Before and after Thanksgiving, we will see chatter about how insufferable and intolerant family members can be as they discuss the 2024 election. PBS ran a long piece before the election presenting narratives showing “there are a lot of issues . . . dividing Americans now, and that makes it harder for people who are Republican to . . . live with their Democratic family members, and vice versa.”
Political differences are challenging to navigate, especially within families. However challenging these disagreements may be, we cannot isolate family members who hold differing views. In a nation managing a loneliness epidemic and deep polarization, we should be leaning into our families and approaching differences with empathy and understanding. Doing so makes us better citizens and community members. As the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks wisely proclaimed:
The family is where we learn the delicate choreography of relationships and how to handle the inevitable conflicts within any human group. It is where we first take the risk of giving and receiving love. It is where one generation passes on its values to the next, ensuring the continuity of a civilization. For any society, the family is the crucible of its future.
As we gather for the holidays, it is critical not to vilify differences and consider the possibility that family members attach different weight to political and social questions that impact their vote. Perhaps a loved one holds many liberal values but—like many Americans—is struggling at home financially. This family member has children, a mortgage, car payments, insurance, medical bills, and increasingly climbing expenses, all the while salary and benefits are stagnant. What if this person truly believes that Donald Trump’s financial proposals are best for his or her family and is optimistic that a Republican White House can control costs related to health care and inflation? What if this family member shares your liberal social views on a host of values but truly maintains that his or her financial considerations are far more important right now than issues relating to the environment, the LGBTQIA+ movement, and other social issues that are salient, but less so than making sure that he or she can feed, clothe, and support his or her family.
What about a situation where a family member is conservative, religious, and truly supports Trump’s view on global affairs and engagement in places like Israel and Ukraine? He or she believes that the law and order platform is the way forward in cities which are seemingly spinning out of control? How would someone react to this family member saying that he or she cannot bring him or herself to vote for Trump as there are daughters in the household and he or she has a deep belief that supporting Trump sends the wrong message about women and questions of moral and ethical behavior? This family member may be voting against his or her economic interests here, but his or her core social values are not open to compromise.
Read the rest of this piece at AEI.
Samuel J. Abrams is a professor of politics at Sarah Lawrence College and a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
Photo: Library of Congress, Chi Psi Fraternity house, Cornell University, Public Domain
Photos: Pexels.
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