He’s a father of a 28-year-old son and he’s hurting. A retired police officer, he proudly voted for Donald Trump every time he ran and never hid his political beliefs from his family. “My son and his wife say that since I’m a fan of Trump they’re no fan of mine and cut me off,” he said. “Now I can’t see my only grandchild who I was so close to. It’s crazy and it’s tragic.”
It’s also increasingly common. The 2024 election spatchcocked the nation, widening a rift that was exposed in 2016 and put in an even sharper gulf four years later. Now, the hyper-partisan politics in the shadow of the 2024 election is breaking the bonds of families to a greater extent than ever before.
It would be more than that if people had a place to go and a way to get there.
Also it’s not just trumpism, it’s that your family can be intelligent but fall for grifters… or they will be kind 90% of the time and then without prompt will casually say something really fucked up at dinner.
Like so many problems in modern America, you can trace it back to Reagan.
Back in the day, it was important for politicians to try and maintain a civil tone with one another in public, no matter how much they despised each other behind the scenes. Reagan publicly used ‘Liberal’ as a pejorative and implied that those who disagreed with him weren’t really patriotic.
I just want to point out that McCarthyism existed before Reaganism. But he was a big fucking fan of it.
And the Federalists and Democratic Republicans were wildly confrontational.
Calendar on Adams in 1800…
“Ye will judge without regard to the prattle of a president, the prattle of that strange compound of ignorance and ferocity, of deceit and weakness; without regard to that hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman.”
That’s just one example of many quotes from that time. There was some wildly vitriolic mud slinging in early American politics.
These days, it’s more like they’re literally buddies behind the scenes while expressing partisan vitriol in public for show. It’s fucking gross.
One thing people don’t realize. Back in the day, travel was difficult. Elected officials would stay in Washington for months at a time. Members of Congress [R and D] routinely hung out together. These days they spend the weekends in their districts courting votes.
Another problem is the weaponizing of C-SPAN. Before 24 hour coverage a speech on the floor was routinely ignored. A Memeber could talk down a Bill on the floor, knowing his local paper would cover it, and then make a quiet deal behind the scenes. Now everyone is forced into intractable positions.
It’s crazy and it’s tragic.
take a drink every time a narc parent uses the words ‘weird’ or ‘crazy’ to describe being treated like the horrible person that they are.
Spatchcocked?
“Choosing bonds of identity over familial obligations” has judgemental connotations.
The thing about “bonds of identity” is that those people respect your right to exist and your personal agency. The family that deserves to be cut off does not.
If you’ve had it explained to you multiple times why the decisions you make are harming the people you claim to love, and you don’t change your behavior, don’t be surprised when that person you say you care about tells you to piss up a rope.
