For many, the key to preventing estrangement is not talking about politics in the first place. That is how Michelle, a health care worker in Arizona, has tried to manage the situation in her family. She said her sister voted for Mr. Trump, but they agreed long ago never to discuss it, and are best friends who talk every day.
Were both like, nope, were not going to do it, she said. I value her as my sister, we are really close.
But she cried as she described having to block her father, a retired manager for a manufacturing firm, from her email this fall, because of what she said was a constant stream of conspiracy-laden messages that he would not stop sending even after she had asked. She asked that her last name not be used because she feared further damage to her relationship with him.
Im just sad, she said, crying softly. Just because, you know, hes my dad, and hes always helped me if Ive ever needed it. Hes always been there for me.
Still, she planned to see him on Thanksgiving, outside and masked.
A number of older voters said they grew up around family and friends who didnt always agree with them politically, but those distinctions mattered less to a persons identity then. They didnt pick fights over them, because politics was not who you were.
I really just dont see alienating my family over this, said Joe Wallace, 75, a retired pipe fitter in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania who voted for Joe Biden. He said that he was baffled by his sisters strong support for Mr. Trump, but that he never talked about it with them. Its not worth it.
Will relationships heal now that Mr. Trump is no longer president? Nearly everyone interviewed for this article who had experienced a falling out said they did not think so at least not immediately. Estelle Moore, a retired flight attendant in East Stroudsburg, Pa., said it was as if we had seen things in each other that we werent supposed to. But now that we had, we could not un-see them.read more
Families Have Been Torn Apart by Politics. What Happens to Them Now?
