David Graham, a writer at The Atlantic, thinks it might not be a good idea to annoy your fellow Thanksgiving guests with discussions about politics. However, this year he is making an exception and is urging his fellow liberals to attempt reeducating the "unenlightened" Thanksgiving guests with a plethora of leftist talking points. Why? Because of President Donald Trump.
Here is Graham making the case for risking the ruination of your Thanksgiving dinner by injecting liberal politics into the conversations in Go Ahead, Talk Politics at Thanksgiving:
Of all the Thanksgiving anxieties—bad traffic, overcooked turkey, undercooked turkey, the aunt who tries to get creative with some gourmet cranberry relish when all you want is the familiar canned variety, dammit, her increasingly intoxicated and querulous husband, and so on—no fear seems to equal that of getting sucked into a political conversation.
...This hasn’t stopped some people from urging others to do it—most notably Barack Obama, who encouraged people to talk about health insurance at Thanksgiving 2013. No wonder Obamacare was so unpopular for so long.
This year, however, here’s my (probably bad) advice: Go ahead, argue about politics.
Really? What changed your mind? Why, David, is this Thanksgiving different than all other Thanksgivings?
There are two primary reasons to just dive in. First, President Trump’s ability to grab the spotlight and inject himself into so many facets of life makes trying to avoid politics practically futile these days. I’m a political journalist and spend all my time talking, reporting, and writing about politics, so I am not especially representative, but I also live far outside the Beltway in North Carolina. I am astonished at how often conversations with “civilians” outside of politics and journalism drift inexorably toward politics, followed by an awkward silence as everyone realizes the discussion has gone there. Besides, what else are you going to talk about? The weather? That’s going to be a climate-change debate in no time at all.
Of course! Trump's fault. And can we refer to the New York Times column by Benjamin Y. Fong that blames capitalism for climate change? The same capitalism that made it possible for almost every family in America to have a Thanksgiving turkey on their table.
Second, the stakes are higher this year. That isn’t to say that politics doesn’t affect our lives deeply all the time—if I felt it didn’t, I wouldn’t waste my time covering it—but the matters that the last year or two have brought into the arena are central to the nation’s identity: the role of racism in American society, the fate of longstanding norms about how the U.S. functions, the appropriate role for our country in global affairs, what rule of law means, and nuclear war, for pete’s sake. These are more important than the details of health-care legislation, marginal tax rates, or any number of the mundane topics that might have caused friction at previous years’ family feasts. If the things I’m talking about here are more likely to cause screaming matches, that’s because they’re so important.
Oh yes, how well I remember the children at the kiddies table last year getting into a food fight arguing over marginal tax rates. A familiar Thanksgiving topic going back to the days of the Pilgrims.
Only by talking to relatives can you find out whether they hold dubious political positions (read: ones you disagree with, but also ones that are factually incorrect), and thus try to convince them to adopt your position.
How to do that? Politifact offers a fact-sheet for easy reference, but frankly you’re probably better off just setting your own pants on fire.
Liar! Liar! Pants on fire! As for relying on Politifact, right now their Thanksgiving recommendation is to stick to such "facts" that Trump is merely the lucky beneficiary of "economic tailwinds" and that Hillary Clinton knew nothing about anything nefarious in the Uranium One deal. Got that, Sergeant Schultz? She knew nothing...NOTHING!
Political scientists have also found that people are more likely to change their political views based on personal interactions—especially personal interactions that are focused on issues, rather than arrayed along partisan battle lines.
So does that mean we should bring some extra MAGA hats to the Thanksgiving meal to give to one or more of the guests in case they get Red Pilled?
So go ahead, take on your grandma’s outdated views. Go ahead, get into it with your smug, know-it-all nephew. Go ahead, explain to your cousin who read an online explainer that the issue is more complicated than it appears. The country’s fate depends on it.
"Alexa, please talk to my annoying Thanksgiving guest so I don't have to listen to his drivel."
