SAUNDERS: Don’t be a turkey at Thanksgiving table

WASHINGTON

“My Mom Voted for Trump. Can We Let It Go?” Read the headline for The New York Times’ “The Ethicist” piece Friday.

The family dynamic no doubt is familiar to New York Times readers — the writer’s wife’s family members are committed Trump haters, except his mother voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020.

The writer isn’t sure if his mother voted for Trump in 2024 — and still the family wants to pile on her.

“I’m troubled by my mother’s support of someone I consider morally abhorrent and dangerous, especially when she voted in a former swing state,” the son wrote.

“With the result of the 2024 election, my wife and her family are directing their understandable fury at my mother.” “Name withheld” added that his wife and her family plan to scold his mother for her choice, and “they don’t think I should expect them to be anything other than completely unfiltered with my mother.”

For her part, the mother expects her son to speak up for her and encourage the family to be more civil.

Alas, her son writes, he agrees “with the substance of my wife’s family’s position. If I try to protect my mother from vitriol, would I be betraying myself, or my wife and her family, in order to preserve harmony and child care?”

That poor woman. She left her home to be near her son and help raise his children, only to discover that she raised a jellyfish.

The Ethicist sagely responded that family members have a right to ask the mother probing questions, but are not entitled to cudgel her with them.

I have some thoughts on this myself.

First, shame on the wife’s family for being so intolerant that they are poised to pounce on a family member for supporting the Republican nominee.

Second, shame on them for not being curious as to why the mother voted for Trump — or why half of the electorate went for the former president. They have no interest in understanding why Trump won more votes than Harris.

Third, this is what happens when people on one side of the aisle decide that folks on the other side are stupid or evil. Or racist. The laws of civility get tossed out the window, even by people who think they are noble and good.

And they’re sore losers.

MSNBC host Joy Reid took this act further when she told her supporters on X that people were alarmed at the Trump victory and “if you would vote for that, people may not feel all that confident that they’re safe with you.”

Yes, she went there with the bogus safety argument.

Then Reid declared: If you think that you can vote for Trump and expect Kamala Harris voters to “have Thanksgiving with you, I think you’re kind of misinformed.”

Put another way: If you think the far left is tolerant, you’re very misinformed.

The writer’s family and Reid are living in a bubble — and bubbles are feedback loops that block out contrary voices. If they hardly know any Trump voters, they should make a point of making new friends.

Those of us who have been steeped in politics over the years have found ourselves inside bubbles from time to time — and when that happens, we are never at our best.

Contact Review-Journal Washington columnist Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com. Follow @debrajsaunders on X.