Whenever there is a holiday, the conservative chorus complains that liberals are waging a war on it. So of course the latest warning from the right-wing paranoia patrol is a leftist plot to destroy Thanksgiving. Lara Trump is leading the charge. She told Pete Hegseth on Fox News,
They have told us from the beginning that they want to fundamentally transform America. Well, how do you that? You have to change America from the inside-out. You have to take away our traditions. So it might seem a little funny and a little ridiculous. ‘Oh, don’t have a turkey, then people won’t come over.’ Last year, remember, they didn’t want us to get together, so I guess we’re lucky they’re letting us have Thanksgiving this year. At really, the core of this, they want to divide Americans up. They don’t want us to have any common ground. They don’t want us to have any shared traditions like Thanksgiving. A lot of places last month actually did away with Halloween because they wanted to be inclusive of the people that didn’t celebrate Halloween.
As usual, Lara is speaking pure wind. Can she name one of these “a lot of places” which did away with Halloween? I didn’t see any Halloween-denial in my neighborhood. Nor has anyone put a damper on Thanksgiving. And Christmas remains, as it does every year, safe from whatever imaginary opponent is waging war on it.
Also safe is Christianity and guns. The only churches that have closed are those due to lack of interest, as an increasing number of Americans walk away from organized religion. And as for guns, arms manufacturers have ramped up production to meet an ever-increasing demand for yet more weapons by people who already have more than they could possibly use.
Things that are threatened in America are the citizen’s ability to vote, to protest, to choose and the environment. And it is not liberals who are waging a war on the franchise, civil rights, and the climate, air, and water.
Fox News did find one example of a public official saying something that didn’t fit in with the traditional narrative of Thanksgiving. Washington, D.C. public school Chancellor Lewis D. Ferebee recently suggested that terms like genocide, ethnic cleansing and "stolen land" should be used at Thanksgiving gatherings. In a letter to the ‘DCPS’ community he wrote,
Thanksgiving is a day that can be difficult for many to celebrate as we reflect on the history of the holiday and the horrors inflicted on our indigenous populations," the chancellor wrote. "If you celebrate, our Equity team has shared resources for how you can consider decolonizing your Thanksgiving" (emphasis original).
Note, the Chancellor said nothing about canceling Thanksgiving. In fact he was clearly addressing his remarks to people who celebrate Thanksgiving. Predictably it was the word “decolonizing” that got the Fox folks most riled up.
Fox contributors, Sean Duffy and Rachel Campos-Duffy charged to the barricades to protest this ‘outrage’. When host Tammy Bruce asked Duffy, “Will you be taking the chancellor's advice?" Are you going to be talking about those things like genocide?” Duffy whined,
"Stop trying to colonize our culture! You're trying to demonize our history and our founding, trying to make us feel bad about ourselves. I'm sick of it. If these people really believed in this garbage, when have they given up their wealth or their land or their jobs and given it back to native people? This is all meaningless garbage to try to change our culture."
His answer illustrates two things. One, nothing upsets a conservative more than the truth. Two, that conservatives love the ‘strawman argument’. Nowhere does the chancellor say anything about people giving up wealth, jobs or land.
Duffy then added that aunts and uncles should take it upon themselves to teach kids the "true history" of the United States.
Campos-Duffy agreed,
”There is just so much historical ignorance. I mean, you cannot leave your children's history up to these cultural Marxists."
Her answer illustrates two more things. One, conservatives who want to whitewash history, are very good at projection. Two, to rile up the base throw in Marxism.
And that’s how conservatives celebrate Thanksgiving.