Squabble, squabble: Thanksgiving politics

Election ire gets some booted from table

Sarah-Jane Cunningham knew her Facebook posts about the election rubbed her family the wrong way, but she didn’t realize the posts would get her uninvited from Thanksgiving dinner.

The 19-year-old said her mother called a week before Thanksgiving and confronted her about the Facebook posts regarding President-elect Donald Trump.

“She asked me if I was going to be disrespectful to my family, and I told her that it could work ei- ther way,” Cunningham said. “If the things I am saying are disrespectful to Trump supporters, the things they are saying are also disrespectful to me.”

Cunningham’s response got her uninvited to her family’s Thanksgiving dinner in Maine. She said that although her mom called later and tried to make things right, it was too late, and she plans to hang out with her two cats in Boston on Thanksgiving.

She won’t be the only one whose political views earned them a spot on the uninvited list at family Thanksgiving.

Katelyn Crist, a writer based in Charlotte, who recently faced criticism after writing about her decision to vote for Trump, tweeted that Trump supporters uninvited to Thanksgiving are welcome at her house.

“We need to get back to a place where we can have civil discourse over a variety of subjects because that’s the way we learn and grow,” Crist said.

For those who are trying to repair relationships with family members they don’t agree with, the best strategy may be to avoid hot-button political topics during the holidays, according to Jamie M. Howard, a clinical psychologist at the Anxiety and Mood Disorders Center of the Child Mind Institute in New York City.

“People do get heated on things they feel passionately about,” she said. “When you enter the conversation, don’t enter it trying to change someone’s mind or prove why you are right and they are wrong. At this point, you aren’t going to change anyone’s mind.”

If you get back on the invite list to dinner, use humor to defuse tense political discussions, but set boundaries and keep the conversation from getting personal.

Or you can choose to just keep your mouth shut.

“We need to get back to a place where we can have civil discourse.” Katelyn Crist