He’s a father of a 28-year-old son and he’s hurting. A retired police officer, he proudly voted for Donald Trump every time he ran and never hid his political beliefs from his family. “My son and his wife say that since I’m a fan of Trump they’re no fan of mine and cut me off,” he said. “Now I can’t see my only grandchild who I was so close to. It’s crazy and it’s tragic.”

It’s also increasingly common. The 2024 election spatchcocked the nation, widening a rift that was exposed in 2016 and put in an even sharper gulf four years later. Now, the hyper-partisan politics in the shadow of the 2024 election is breaking the bonds of families to a greater extent than ever before.

  • SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social
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    18 hours ago

    Assuming this is a good faith argument, I’ll throw in: Some thoughtful, leftist commentary claims that the Democrats and the Republicans are fundamentally the same behind the scenes, with identity politics as the window dressing to distinguish them, and keep the lower classes divided.

    Well, look at what we have here: Identity politics successfully dividing the lower classes. The two parties do differ quite a bit in some ways, and the window dressing is causing the estrangement.

        • surph_ninja@lemmy.world
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          14 hours ago

          Yeah, but I don’t care about their rhetoric. I care about how they govern, and in that respect there’s no difference between the GOP and the Dems.

          • SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social
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            10 hours ago

            Okay, but your first comment referenced supporters, who are different people than the electeds or party leaders. I might suggest re-phrasing to say, “I believe that Dem supporters have the same facts, thoughts, and perspective on the parties as I do, and as such, I find them morally culpable for every action of the party leaders.” That’s a different thing than not understanding how they can behave the way they do.

          • rhadamanth_nemes@lemmy.world
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            10 hours ago

            Trump is directly responsible for the poor and delayed response to COVID and furthering the validity of fringe anti mask claims, making him also directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.

            • surph_ninja@lemmy.world
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              9 hours ago

              Yup. And Biden is responsible for hundreds of thousands more, ending Covid assistance, forcing people back to the office, and implementing Trump’s shitty “stop counting sick people” idea to pretend it was over. There’s still people dying today of severe covid, with it as one of the top killers of young people now.

              Prosecute them both for these deaths.