Liberal writer encourages shunning Trump-supporting relatives as right thing to do
"It's okay to go no contact with your MAGA relatives," politics writer Sarah Jones wrote for The Intelligencer.
Jones argued that neutrality in relationships "doesn't exist" and that sometimes cutting off family members over political disagreements is the right thing to do.
"Sometimes the act of knowing a person leaves you with no choice but to move on without them. If my parents liked Alligator Alcatraz, I'd no longer speak to them," she wrote. "If they were rude to my LGBT friends, I'd block their numbers. Though shunning won't work as a political strategy, there are still natural consequences for the way we speak and behave."
Her piece was a response to Obama White House speechwriter David Litt's guest essay in The New York Times this week, which called for liberals to stop ostracizing conservative family members.
Litt wrote about reconnecting with his brother-in-law — who is a fan of Joe Rogan and is unvaccinated — through learning to surf, after he'd previously given him the cold shoulder.
The experience made him rethink his previous unfriendliness toward his relatives.
"Shunning plays into the hands of demagogues, making it easier for them to divide us and even, in some cases, to incite violence," Litt wrote.
In her response, Jones mocked that argument as "so naïve it borders on malice."
"Too often, civility is another word for impunity," she wrote.
"I can see what Litt gained from this quest for neutrality. He evidently feels better about himself, and family gatherings must be easier now. Nothing's changed for anyone else," she wrote.
Jones argued that we can't "pretend" to ignore political disagreements to keep the peace in relationships.
"It's good, actually, to have values and draw lines accordingly, even if there's a chance someone will overcorrect. Politics never stopped at the family front door. Why pretend otherwise?" she wrote.
In the wake of the 2024 election, several liberals in the media pushed for Democrats to shun Trump-supporting family members, particularly around the holidays.
Just days after Trump's victory, a guest on former MSNBC host Joy Reid's show suggested that it would be better for these voters' mental health to distance themselves from their Trump-supporting loved ones over the holidays.
"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," Yale University chief psychiatry resident Dr. Amanda Calhoun said last November.
The co-hosts of "The View" agreed with the notion, calling it a "moral issue."
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