Thanksgiving meal with family and close friends provides an exceptional opportunity to learn from others and be heard in a safe environment.
Avoiding politics at Thanksgiving has become a sad cliché, lest Grandma be left in tears while serving the pumpkin pie as ranting about Bidenomics, wokeness, or Trump resonates around the elegantly decorated dining room.
We are informed that it is not worth risking the hurling of stuffing and turkey legs across the table because Uncle Joe believes climate change is a hoax or Cousin Tom’s new wife believes Thanksgiving is a celebration of colonialism.
So simply ignore it all and chat about Taylor Swift or football – or, these days, both.
This is horrible counsel, not only for the individual Turkey Day gathering, but for the nation as a whole, since if there is any place where our country’s great schisms can be bridged, it is surely at a Thanksgiving table with family and friends.
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To be honest, in this day and age, we could all benefit from “in real life” conversations with individuals we love and care about but disagree with, rather than the frequently faceless targets of our political wrath.
We saw a viral video earlier this month of a Democrat Virginia voter on election day berating a volunteer from the opposing party, yelling every cliche about the right you can think of.
There was something about the video that I couldn’t quite put my finger on, so I watched it again and again until it clicked.
This person was acting out the identical kind of deranged social media rants we see in our virtual lives, and once I saw it, I couldn’t unsee it.
For more than a decade, it has been observed that people would say things online that they would never say in person, but what if that is a lie?
What if our virtual egos are infiltrating our real-life interactions?
That’s where a healthy dose of political discourse addressing the day’s subjects on Thanksgiving comes in. For many, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hear and be heard from the other side in a safe and caring setting.
This summer, I attended my 30th high school reunion, and one progressive classmate and I ended up in a corner, having a long conversation.
We talked about the transgender issue and children, which is pretty much the highest voltage third rail in our culture today.
It was respectful, thoughtful, and helped me reconsider my own opinions.
This was conceivable because we had known each other as youngsters and young adults and recognized that the reason we both had was to safeguard children; in other words, we both shared the same end objective but had different approaches to achieve it.
Some on the left believe that anyone on the right is a white supremacist neanderthal. Some on the right will tell you that everyone on the left is infected with the awakened mind virus and is bad.
These are pointless opinions to take unless those pushing them have a vested financial or political interest in a badly divided America, which, thankfully, the vast majority of Americans do not.
The secret to the high-minded political discussion, which young people in attendance will notice, is that the goal is not to win.
There is no straw poll after coffee unless your family is extremely odd.
No, the purpose is to assess where we are as a family, a community, and a country, and nothing could be more fitting on Thanksgiving.
After all, the 52 Pilgrims and their Native American counterparts were creating something new in the world, something we now name an American.
It is the origin tale of the American people as a whole, not just the United States of America.
They feasted in thanksgiving to God, knowing very little about the huge, rolling America that we inherited from them and now care for.
