They’re Still Defending It
There’s something heartbreakingly ordinary about sitting across from someone you love and realizing you no longer recognize the version of reality they live in.
Maybe it’s your brother. Your aunt. Your childhood friend who always brought the best pasta salad to Fourth of July potlucks. The conversations now come with a slow, careful dance, how’s the weather, how are the kids, how’s the job, before both sides quietly avoid the giant, MAGA-shaped elephant in the room.
And yet, there they are, still believing it. Still defending it. Still clinging to the myth of a man who has done more to fracture this country than unify it.
We Still Set the Table
We don’t stop inviting them to Thanksgiving. We still wave as we pass their houses. We still answer their calls, sometimes out of love, sometimes out of a deep hope that maybe this time they’ll bring up anything other than border conspiracies or deep state fever dreams.
This isn’t a how-to guide on winning them over. Those conversations rarely go anywhere. You could bring court transcripts, constitution clauses, or firsthand stories of people hurt by Trump’s policies, and it wouldn’t matter. Facts slide off the surface when someone’s self-worth is tangled up in red hats and slogans.
But we love them anyway. Because love doesn’t always come with agreement. Sometimes it shows up as restraint. Sometimes it shows up as silence. Sometimes it’s just not giving up completely.