The Rules for Talking Politics on Thanksgiving

The holidays are coming, and that means parties with family, friends and co-workers, and if you’re anything like me — a big city liberal from a bucolic, Fox News-abiding red town — it also means rubbing elbows with some folks who might not share your opinions.

Conventional knowledge will tell you that this is a time to leave politics and religion out of it.

And since Trump won the election, a true but uncomfortable fact becomes more clear every day: there are two Americas right now, they don’t play nice with each other, and they’re making very little effort to listen to what the other side has to say.

So I’m going to suggest that this year you violate the rules of polite dinner conversation and talk about politics — early and often. Ours is a country  divided, and that division stems from a lack of understanding of how people outside of our own worldview feel. We’ll never reach understanding if we don’t talk sensibly to each other.

But before you go waltzing into the verbal briar patch, let us suggest a few simple ways to avoid full-blown donnybrooks.