I’ve read and heard of several accounts (on TikTok and Reddit, so no cites, sorry) by people who simply cut ties with relatives who voted for Trump. Has this happened to you? Is it really common now? And has it happened before when people voted for, say, Reagan?
Hasn’t happened to me (I’m blessed with Kool Aid-avoiding relatives), but living in the purplest small city (La Crosse) in the purplest state (Wisconsin), I have several friends and neighbors who have cut off all ties to certain uncles and the like over this. Anecdotally, I don’t know of anyone doing this over a pre-Trump leader or movement, though I can imagine it sometimes happened (I’d guess most recently over FDR and the New Deal). Surely never as much as today, not since the 1860s.
I am most impressed by a 17-year-old daughter of friends, who – far from cutting ties – has bravely and eloquently engaged with her Trumpy relatives (mainly on Facebook, but IRL as well) with facts, sadness, and righteous passion.
Fortunately, I was advised by Julia Roberts that I have the right to vote as I choose and no one need ever know.
I have a cousin-in-law who gleefully shared that he voted for Trump and called the rest of us “sheep.” The next day he texted “Happy Wednesday, the sun is shining”, which did not endear him to us, though he claimed it was an innocent remark.
I get along well with his wife and hate family drama. Not sure what to do in the future. My nephew is also an idiot, but we’re visiting him for X-mas and hopefully he hasn’t done the same thing as Cousin Bob, because his kid is so cute and we’ve always got on.
I hope you find a way to keep ties with as many relatives as you can. It doesn’t sound like the people you mentioned are chronically toxic, in-you-face assholes (even if they voted for one). Err on the side of whatever you need to do or say (to yourself and others) to keep those ties going, on some level at least.
Easy for me to say, I know. I have no Trumpy relatives, but I am civil to the Trumpy neighbor across the street, and my wife asks me to be less civil to him, so I’m slightly familiar with the kind of dilemma you face.
I cut ties with all my trump-loving relatives and “friends” after 2016. Have not regretted that decision at all.
I have a wife who’s an immigrant, a son who’s near draft age, and a teenage daughter who’s old enough to get raped and pregnant. That’s my family. Anyone who votes against their safety is not friend or family to me.
I wouldn’t say that I actually “disowned” anybody, but there are a lot of people that I no longer respond to. It’s not a situation that I like, but I just have no energy to give to people that I no longer trust, respect, or really like.
I live in the south. Cutting ties with all Trumpers would basically isolate me from half of my friends and a lot of my co-workers… If I start cutting ties to my family who support Trump then there’s no telling where it will end. I can’t go down the road.
We simply have a difference of opinion and that’s perfectly ok. I’m ok with others being wrong or even me being wrong, lord knows I’ve been wrong many times in my life. That sll said I still think Trump’s a giant POS.
I’m an independent (roughly 70% libertarian and 30% conservative) and not a fan of either (major) political party. My wife, OTOH, is a conservative Republican, and all three of our children are liberal Democrats.
I try and get along with everyone regardless of their political persuasion, but I do have my limits: I will distance myself from anyone who militantly subscribes to far left ideologies (e.g. Marxists and violent Antifa folks) and far right ideologies (QAnon, Christian Identity, etc.).
Associating with a Trump supporter if you aren’t one is dangerous, family or not. Don’t make the mistake of assuming they’ll put family feeling above their hatred, people who do that often suffer for it.
This is extreme, and certainly not a position held by most Democrats.
I associate with Trump supporters and Harris supporters every day. All is good.
If your position is, “If you associate with a Trump supporter then you are then enemy,” then, wow… good luck with that.
I think distancing yourself from fascists is always a good strategy. I know that a lot of Trump voters feel that they aren’t fascists, or racists, or Christian Nationalists supporting a totalitarian theocracy but they aligned themselves with a ‘leader’ (I use that them in the loosest possible sense) who nakedly expresses and promotes the fundamental tenets of fascism and has openly aligned himself with people seeking to make American “a Christian nation” (in their perverse, self-contradictory, and hateful version of Christianity), so it’s a case of actions speaking louder and more honestly than words. When you paint your house a violent shade of chartreuse but claim, “I don’t really like that color but it was better than the other paint colors at the store,” it kinda makes you look like a disingenuous fool or an intransigent liar, both of which are intolerable.
Stranger
Which has caused them significant suffering when they assumed a family member wouldn’t turn on them. Right wingers are all about hate, they feel neither loyalty nor family feeling and are a danger to anyone around them.
Um, cite.
This is a phenomenon that’s become more common over the last few years not necessarily over elections but just political differences. You have people cutting off parents or kids not because of toxic behavior but because of political differences. I don’t know how common it is, but I’ve found my own relationship with my mother has become strained over the years as she’s gone deeper into MAGA insanity. I can’t talk to her about anything serious because I don’t just her judgment.