Don’t Believe the Trump Thanksgiving Boycott Headlines

Hold the turkey and dressing – it seems Thanksgiving tables won’t be as full this year as liberals boycott conservative family gatherings.

Or will they?

After a four-year break from stories detailing how outraged relatives won’t be celebrating the holidays together over political differences, the boycotting talk is back – and in full force.

So much for an attitude of gratitude.

“Nearly a quarter of Americans are considering skipping Thanksgiving to avoid talking about politics,” = CBS News headlines.

Yale University chief psychiatry resident Amanda Calhoun was on The View recently and endorsed the unhinged calls to steer clear of family due to political differences.

“There is a push, I think just a societal norm that if somebody is your family, that they are entitled to your time, and I think the answer is absolutely not,” Calhoun said. “So if you are going to a situation where you have family members, where you have close friends who you know have voted in ways that are against you … against your livelihood, it’s completely fine to not be around those people.”

With psychiatrists dispensing information like that, it’s no wonder students on our college campuses are navigating a mental health crisis. Rather than leaning into even considerable ideological differences, there are increasing calls for social distancing and outright boycotting.

If this theme sounds familiar, it’s because we read the same types of stories around the holidays in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. They began to fade after President Joe Biden took up residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

It seems conservatives can peacefully navigate their liberal relatives – but liberal relatives find it more difficult to get along with their right-leaning loved ones.

Navigating political divides is nothing new, of course. For as long as we’ve had a country, families have had differences of opinion when it comes to the president and his policies. Even before we were independent from Great Britain, a third of the colonists favored the separation, a third opposed it and a third were waiting to see how it all turned out. And there were families that had people representing all three sides.

It’s only been in recent memory when the divisions have seemed to threaten the very fabric and unity of the family itself.

The legendary actor Clint Eastwood, who is 94 years old and considers himself a libertarian, has observed:

“Maybe I’m getting to the age when I’m starting to be senile or nostalgic or both, but people are so angry now. You used to be able to disagree with people and still be friends. Now you hear these talk shows, and everyone who believes differently from you is a moron and an idiot.”

To be sure, the tension is real, and the divide is wide, but the skeptic in me wonders if 90 million people in America are seriously considering boycotting Thanksgiving and Christmas with their families. I doubt it.

Such claims make for shocking headlines, feed into the narrative of the supposed divisiveness of a Trump presidency and elicit lots of clicks from the curious. But it’s likely far from reality.

Writing to believers in Rome about navigating relationships with nonbelievers, the apostle Paul asked and stated:

“Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God” (Romans 14:10).  

Paul’s not saying differences are inconsequential or unimportant, nor is he suggesting we can’t engage with one another and challenge opinions. But he’s getting at our attitude and our treatment of those who might see things very differently.

In the end, the so-called Thanksgiving boycott is likely largely overblown – but President-elect Trump’s election win will undoubtedly be a sore point for some and a celebratory occasion for others.

But go ahead and give thanks to God, and even with relatives who voted differently. Pass the gravy – and the grace.

Image from Getty.