Even The View Hosts Don’t Want You to Skip Holidays With Family
Following President-elect Donald Trump’s swift victory on election night, the chattering class turned its gaze towards the approaching Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. The only thing worse than Trump’s victory, these hosts opined, would be sitting across the table from the smug family members who voted for him.
Whatever familial bliss Norman Rockwell depicted in his World War II-era Freedom From Want painting is long gone. Today, if the mainstream media is to be believed, holiday gatherings are just another opportunity to play the victim and gather ammunition for a post-holiday therapy session.
Americans Fear Politics at the Table
A survey of 2,000 Americans — split evenly between men and women ages 25 to 65 and located across all 50 states — who regularly celebrate Thanksgiving found that election-related stress is impacting holiday plans for 64 percent of Americans. (RELATED: Don’t Be a Turkey on Thanksgiving)
Nearly a quarter of respondents said that they were “considering skipping Thanksgiving altogether.” And just about half of Americans wanted a “total politics conversation ban for all guests and family members.”
As for the source of their anxieties, both sides are equally to blame. Harris voters are the source of “election and Thanksgiving anxiety” for 48 percent of Americans, while Trump voters are the cause of worry for 52 percent.
Hosts of The View Disagree on Holiday Plans
In the week after the election, the ever-insightful ladies of The View opined on whether or not differences in political opinion should be an obstacle to family gatherings at Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Sunny Hostin saw no room for coexistence with relatives who voted for Trump, saying, “I really do feel that this candidate, President-elect Trump, is just a different type of candidate — from the things he’s said, and the things he’s done, and the things he will do.”
“It’s more of a moral issue for me,” she continued. “I think that people feel that someone voted not only against their families, but against them and against people that they love.”
But Sara Haines felt differently: “I wouldn’t have had any holidays if I had to only pick the ones where everyone agreed with me.”
In Haines’s mind, toxic personalities — not political affiliations — are the cause of frustration during family gatherings. “I would never let my politics be the reason that I don’t show up to see my family because they won’t always be there,” she said.
Ana Navarro took a similar approach, explaining that she and her husband will be gathering with his five children, even though they voted for Trump. The reason? He wants to see his grandkids.
“For our family, he has told them, ‘I will not let politics split up our family,’” Navarro said. (RELATED: A Happier Thanksgiving)
Navigating Political Polarization
Where Hostin’s view tracks with the 23 percent of Americans who planned to avoid family gatherings, Haines and Navarro take a more sensible approach. Political division in the family isn’t a foregone conclusion — it’s a choice to prioritize feeling safe or morally superior over relationships with family members.
Obviously, there are certain boundaries to relationships that can help relatives navigate bumpy relationships or an antagonistic family member. But recognizing, as Haines does, that skipping out on holidays now costs precious time with parents, grandparents, and other relatives is key for younger Americans to overcome the discomfort of disagreeing over dinner. Similarly, Navarro’s point that taking a principled stand on politics would cost her husband time with his grandchildren is a reminder to older generations of what can be lost when politics is prioritized over people.
Thanksgiving has earned a bad rap as the holiday for unwanted political conflict at the dinner table, and it’s become an opportunity for some mainstream media pundits to encourage separation rather than coexistence. And though the message obviously resonates with a significant number of Americans, most people aren’t willing to set aside their familial relationships over election results.
Mary Frances (Myler) Devlin is a contributing editor at The American Spectator. She graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2022.
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