I’m really, really dreading this. I’m a liberal in a family of conservatives, except for one niece. The Obama hatred of the past 8 years has been hard to handle but most of the time, we agreed to disagree to keep the peace. But then there’s my sister-in-law. When Obama was elected she really became unhinged. She prefaces her rants with “I used to be a Democrat but…” like that gives her opinion some sort of weight. At first her major rant was that Obama was going to give money to all black people in the country. And it all went downhill from there. All this advice about how we liberals need to listen and understand where these people are coming from is useless for me. She doesn’t have issues, she has conspiracy theories. The last time I saw her she was ranting that Hillary needed to be in prison or, even better, executed. I imagine she believes this is going to happen on Jan. 21.
I know my brother voted for Trump. I’m not sure about the others but I know they would never vote for Hillary and I don’t see them as protest voters. I know that a nephew’s wife had said she couldn’t vote for Trump because her sister is disabled. But that was a while ago. My very religious mother had said she would never vote for Trump but told me this last week: I didn’t really vote for Trump, I voted for the people who will surround him. :smack:
I feel really sorry for my young liberal niece is who devastated by the result. She’s the daughter of the ranting sister-in-law.
I just don’t know if I can take them talking about the wonderful future they envision now that the “disaster” brought on by Obama is over. Especially when their lives have all been pretty good for the last 8 years anyway. And I’m so disappointed in them for agreeing that Trump’s behavior is acceptable for a President. But I do know that sister-in-law will be crowing. And I may lose my appetite.
Mine’s gonna be awful. I’m also a liberal in a family of conservatives. Conservatives who made it very clear that someone needed to shoot Hillary and that if Trump lost there was going to be WW3. So Yeah. Not gonna be fun.
I waited 2 days before sending my parents the email saying I wouldn’t be down to visit them until sometime in February at the earliest. This is a very busy time of year for my business, so it won’t be amiss for me to not come for the holidays. The note was brief and I didn’t apologize. I imagine they knew the truth.
Thing is, I view it in an ironic way as being the only way to preserve what’s left of the relationship. I’m much too raw and angry to excuse any alt-right nonsense right now. I need time to make my peace with the current hideous situation before spending time around people with their views.
Voting for Trump was a character bellwether issue for me in the sense that there are basic standards of human decency that you just don’t excuse or gloss over – such as someone being an overt racist, woman-hater or conspiracy-theory subscriber. Especially for a President. My father, especially, has bought into these positions. It couldn’t hurt me more if he’d joined the KKK.
I love my parents. I just don’t like them much these days.
My son and his girlfriend have invited all of us to his place for the holiday. It may be the only family gathering in the U.S. where everyone will be on the same political wavelength.
Being a family gathering, though, we’ll probably find something else to fight about.
I had a falling out with my mother (she had an emotional stability disorder) last month so wasn’t planning to spend Thanksgiving with my parents this year anyway. My brother and SIL are rabid Trump supporters in the heart of Evangelical Land. In fact all my relatives are except I’ve cousin. I really want to sheehy my holidays with people I agree with politically right now, so it will be me, my gf, her mom, and maybe get brother and his gf, who are apathetic non-voters but I believe do not like Trump at all.
Yeah, I thought of that but I have to go. I’ve put up with them all my life. If it gets unbearable, I can always leave. Besides, I would never let my sister-in-law think I couldn’t face her “rightness”.
We are all Democrats in our family, so the problem won’t be that we’ll be arguing. The problem will be that we’ll be depressed. My sister, especially, is a lobbyist for various progressive causes and this election has been devastating for her.
I am going to be visiting both Trump and Clinton (I voted for neither) supporters and will have a good time at both. We are going to eat some prime rib, ham and turkey. Probably eat some green things as well. We are going to needle each other a little bit and then play some board games. Life is good.
Thanksgiving will be fine, because we’re not going anywhere. Christmas…dunno yet. I’m a liberal about most things, and the spouse’s family are all Christian conservatives. They’re usually relatively civil (we don’t talk about politics at gatherings, at least not yet) but I’ve already informed the spouse that if they get rolling on political conversations, I’ll be stepping outside for some air until they’re done. If they push me, I’ll push back, but I don’t think they will.
Same here. We alternate Thanksgivings between my Jewish family and my husband’s Muslim family. Not a Republican among them, but lots of depression this year.
I will most likely spend Thanksgiving alone, but it has nothing to do with politics. My husband just left this morning to go help his parents deal with some legal issue. He’ll spend Thanksgiving with them and come home the day after. My family lives about 2 hours north of me and, frankly, I just don’t want to make the drive. It’s always the same - football on the TV, much too much alcohol, *LOUD *conversations, hours of prep for maybe 30 minutes of inhaling food, then a few more hours of cleaning up. So I’ll stay home with the dog and the cats and just chill.
I seriously doubt there will be any political conversation anyway. My grandfather and his brothers used to argue politics occasionally, but no one else really cared that much. They’re all long dead and among my sibs, there’s enough difference of opinions that we just don’t get into it. One BIL is way more right-wing than I think is healthy, and I’m pretty sure my bro the businessman is a Repub. No clue about my sisters, and two are so ill-informed in general, there’s no sense in trying to discuss anything of substance.
So, yeah, home alone, just me and the critters and maybe some ice cream.
We have had invitations to extended family celebrations, but we decided that this year we would just stay home. I will be cooking for just the four of us. The decision is partly due to the political atmosphere, but not necessarily due to this election. The niece and her husband who host the event are, and have been for years, very angry about the Left Wing views from Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh…
In the seven or eight years I’ve been going to where I go for Thanksgiving, I don’t remember a single political conversation. Partially because since dinner is buffet style there isn’t that much deep conversation at all as we’re not a captive, face-to-face audience like those eating around a table.
My husband and I will be eating out at a restaurant that we enjoy, going for a nice drive in the country and then home to watch old movies. We will be very grateful to be celebrating another Thanksgiving together after hubby had a heartache and two heart surgeries this spring.
We will not be listening to my sister-in-law espouse her beliefs that we must kill all Muslims down to the last infant to make the world safe for Christians it’s God’s will, and that Trump will order Hillary’s imprisonment and execution during his inaugural speech.
We will not be listening to my nephew and his wife refer to President Obama as a “coon” and then swear that they cannot be prejudice because they have a friend who has an “oreo” child.
We will not be listening to another nephew hoping the Liberals dare get out of line because with Trump in charge he and his second amendment buddies will rid this country of the scum.
Life is just to short to let others make you miserable.
Ours will be fine. We used to go to my sister’s house when we lived in Anchorage; I’m really glad I won’t be doing that this year (if they were still alive), as I would likely kill that fucker of a husband of hers. I may fly up there to spit on his grave, however.
Oh, I left one thing out: Before we leave for the cousins’ house, we’ll be feeding the kittehs their traditional can of Friskies Taste Treasures Turkey and Cheese. No sense in letting politics get in the way of their festivities.
