It's Not You

The last four years have been trying for most of us, and have strained or destroyed relationships. Donald Trump entered his presidential run and caused a metaphorical earthquake that left a massive chasm between friends and families. We’ve lost friends. Family members have disowned each other. It’s difficult, and sad, and I can only offer these words as consolation: your rejection of Donald Trump does not reflect poorly on you. You chose decency and democracy over callousness and authoritarianism. If you chose the former, you bear no culpability for the demise of your relationships, as the millions of Americans who rejected Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020 can assure you.

We might never mend some of these fractured relationships, while others may take months, years, or decades to heal. If you stood for plurality, kindness, human rights, and democratic values, you are not the problem. Some of your former acquaintances may come to see their moral lapses and repent, but the responsibility to heal does not fall on your shoulders. The problem was never you.