This week families and friends will gather together to celebrate Thanksgiving. It should be a relaxing time. But, for a lot of us, there are dreaded political conversations on the menu. Thankfully we’re here to help you navigate them. We even have an email hotline for you. Just write to thanksgivinghelp@progressiowa.org and we’ll be there with sound advice!
As you sit down for Thanksgiving dinner, your conservative family members or friends may try to serve up some Trump Turkey (with orange glaze), Canned Kim Cranberry, or even Joni Jell-O Salad. And beware the Grassley Goulash and McConnell Turkey Necks. They’ve been known to give Supreme stomach aches and do lasting damage to your internal system of checks and balances.
In response, it might be tempting to dish out some in-your-face Blue Wave Berry Cobbler. Instead, we suggest a fact-filled Progressive Pie, baked with civility and understanding.
The full recipe and directions are below. Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving!
PROGRESSIVE PIE
Factual Ingredients*
- 1 cup of relief for the 32 million who would have lost health care if the Obamacare had been repealed [Source: Reuters]
- 1 tablespoon of a Twitter Trade War hurting Iowa farmers and families [Source: Des Moines Register]
- 1 conservative justice, putting Roe v. Wade and women’s health care at risk on the Supreme Court [Source: Vox]
- 1.5 trillion teaspoons of debt relief, one for every dollar of student loan debt (held by 44 million Americans) [Source: CNBC]
- A sprinkle of human decency for the 2,342 immigrant children separated from their parents [Source: NPR]
- 4 cups of care, one for each of the Planned Parenthood clinics closed by Gov. Kim Reynolds and Republicans in the Iowa legislature [Source: Des Moines Register]
- A dash of cleaning up the environment, since we have just 12 years to fix climate change [Source: The Guardian]
*No raisins, Aunt Karen
Directions
- Preheat your discussion with conservative, and remember that people have more in common than we might realize.
- Combine all ingredients, thinking about what might connect best with the person you’re talking to.
- To maximize the impact of each ingredient, give it a personal flavor and share why it’s important to you (in addition to being, you know, the truth).
- Let cool a few minutes before serving. Remember that conservatives are used to angry, shouting voices such as Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh. But to make an honest connection, a calmer, cooler conversation is an absolute must.
