From The Confessional: A Family Divided....Over Politics

Although 2021 brought a new sense of hope and optimism, it seems that one thing hasn’t changed, and likely won’t for a while. And that thing is our nation’s political divide. A divide that’s ruined marriages, friendships, and broken apart siblings, cousins, and kids from their parents.

Maybe I’m naive, but I don’t think it was this ugly before the Trump years. I’ve always had my feet firmly planted on the left, but prior to the rise of the Trump presidential campaign, I could talk to people on the other side. Before 2016, it seemed Democrats and Republicans still worked together, at least some of the time. And, there was a place for people in the middle. You weren’t instantly branded a traitor by both parties if you held beliefs from different political parties.

I do feel hopeful that without such a hateful, divisive president angrily tweeting and riling up his base at all hours of the night, our country at least has a chance at healing. Hopefully marriages and relationships can be repaired. Maybe friendships can be mended. Siblings and cousins and parents and their children who haven’t spoken in years can possibly come back together and forgive one another for the things they said.

The harm that Donald Trump did in fracturing this nation is severe, but we can repair. We are better than him. We are stronger than him. And without his incessant narcissistic negativity bombarding our social media feeds, we will move forward—hopefully together—and actually be great again.

Sisters and brothers have stopped speaking. Grown adults avoid calling their parents because they don’t want to hear more angry political rants. It’s sad, for so many, to have lost these relationships. And many of us feel desperately alone.

It can be heartbreaking to lose friendships right now, when we need love, support, and healing more than ever.

But others are willingly cutting ties with toxic people who follow the hate of Donald Trump. Life can feel lighter when you remove the darkness from your inner circle.

Marriages are ending across the nation, because it’s unbearable to stay married to someone with warped political views. How can one be expected to sleep next to a person who actively supports a racist bragging about sexual assault? Simply leaving, however, isn’t always an option, so many are trapped in a partnership with someone they’ve lost all respect for. But either way, the marriage that once was, is over.

There’s no way to hide it—the damage is done. Hopefully the relatives and loved ones and friends who got sucked in to bizarre conspiracy theories or bought Trump’s endless lies will come to their senses and be welcomed back into our lives. But only then. Otherwise, we will continue to either have no contact, or limited, superficial contact with anyone still following such hateful political views. There’s no other way to be right now, as we must protect our children and our own mental health and strive for positivity and optimism in this new, brighter, Biden/Harris era.