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A speechwriter for former President Barack Obama suggested in a guest essay on Sunday that it might be time to stop shunning conservatives over a disagreement with their politics.
David Litt wrote in The New York Times that he felt “a civic duty” to be rude to his brother-in-law, citing his support for Joe Rogan and disagreements over the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccines.
“My frostiness wasn’t personal. It was strategic. Being unfriendly to people who turned down the vaccine felt like the right thing to do. How else could we motivate them to mend their ways?” Litt wrote.
However, Litt revealed that he wanted to take up surfing and his brother-in-law, Matt, was the only surfer he knew. So, Litt wrote, he put his unfriendliness towards him aside, and admitted his cold shoulder towards Matt had backfired.
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“Matt and I remain very different, yet we’ve reached what is, in today’s America, a radical conclusion: We don’t always approve of each other’s choices, but we like each other,” Litt conceded.
Litt said his brother-in-law’s generosity while they surfed together made him rethink his behavior, and that his surfing guidance had made Litt more courageous.
“Ostracizing him wouldn’t have altered his behavior — and it would have made my own life worse,” Litt wrote.
“Our differences are meaningful, but allowing them to mean everything is part of how we ended up here. When we cut off contacts, or let algorithms sort us into warring factions, we forget that not so long ago, we used to have things to talk about that didn’t involve politics. Shunning plays into the hands of demagogues, making it easier for them to divide us and even, in some cases, to incite violence,” he wrote.
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According to Litt, Matt had told him he would vote for him if he ran for office.
Litt added that he would still decline a surf lesson with Trump aide Stephen Miller, but suggested he wouldn’t close the door on a person over a political disagreement.
“In an age when banishment backfires, keeping the door open to unlikely friendship isn’t a betrayal of principles — it’s an affirmation of them,” Litt continued.
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Several liberals have agreed that cutting ties with family members over their support for Trump in 2024 might be necessary, especially around the holidays.
The co-hosts of “The View” agreed with the notion, calling it a “moral issue.”
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