Donald Trump’s electoral victory divided families up and down the country, and even put an end to one family’s Thanksgiving plans
An American family’s festive plans were torn apart after one woman saw her husband’s post about Donald Trump while ‘doomscrolling’ online.
Families up and down the country have had to reckon with this extreme disagreement over the past decade, with both liberals and conservatives convinced that the other side wants to bring an end to the Founding Fathers’ grand vision for a free and democratic republic.
One woman’s story of how her heartbreak and terror at Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris last year perhaps exemplifies this growing divide in society better than others.
Author Andrea Tate wrote in HuffPost last year about how her husband and his family were no longer welcome for Christmas or Thanksgiving after Trump’s victory last November.
“He won, and, from where I stand, America lost,” she lamented.
The past decade has seen political differences turn into a sharp divide (Alessandro Bremec/NurPhoto via Getty Image)
Andrea shared how the morning after the November 5 election she was unable to leave her bed, instead finding herself doomscrolling through social media, occasionally unfriending people on Facebook who had not voted for the Democrat candidate.
But then, she saw her husband celebrate Trump’s second victory with a post stating: “God Bless America. God bless #45, 47.”
Incandescent with rage and sadness, she described being unable to even talk to or look at her husband. Instead, she texted him to take the post down ‘out of respect for me and all my liberal writer friends’.
Facing a family-filled holiday season, she added to her text: “Also, tell your family I love them, but I will not be coming for Thanksgiving, and I won’t be hosting Christmas. I need space.”
Later that day, after her husband attempted to cool the situation by bringing her a coffee and telling her that he understands her decision, she braved having a conversation with him.
Andrea could not face her Trump-voting relatives after the election (Al Drago-Pool/Getty Images)
“I am sorry about the holidays, but I cannot bite my tongue like I did with Hillary,” she told her husband. “I don’t want to disrespect your parents or your brother and his family in their home, or our home, so it’s best this way.
“No scenes. You can go see them. Seriously – I will not be in a room of 15 people who voted for Trump.”
While this might seem an extreme response, the essayist pointed out the perceived moral void between herself and her Trump-voting relatives.
“I will not unwrap gifts given to me by people who voted for a party that has talked about building internment camps and mass deportation,” she wrote.
Further justifying her decision to bar her in-laws from Christmas and Thanksgiving celebrations, Andrea added that she ‘will not pass the turkey’ to people she says voted to take away women’s reproductive rights and harm vulnerable groups.
Her husband did not argue about the change in plans for the holiday season, nor did he take down the offending post.