Don’t personalize your politics like Jimmy Kimmel’s family does

The debate about political polarization often inevitably devolves into finger-pointing from both sides about how polarizing their opponents are. And yet, only one side routinely has bizarre stories about how it has cut off relationships with family members who have different politics. That side is the liberals, who otherwise wail about tolerance and diversity.

Jimmy Kimmel‘s wife, Molly McNearney, offered one such example on the We Can Do Hard Things podcast. She detailed how she understands why people voted for President Donald Trump in 2016. After all, she is from St. Louis, Missouri, and grew up a Republican before she became a better person, unlike her dumb family members, who she said are being “deliberately misled” by Republican politicians and falling for it every time.

DEMOCRATS HAVE MADE CALIFORNIA POLITICS TOXIC

McNearney almost had a moment of self-awareness about her obsession with Trump and politics, saying, “I’m angry all the time, which isn’t healthy at all. But I, like, personalize everything now. When I see these terrible stories every day, and I’m immediately mad at certain aunts, uncles, cousins, who put him in power. And it’s really hard, and I wish I could, like, deprogram myself in some way, but I get really angry.”

Oh, but she just “hates” that this happens to her.

There is good news for those of you out there who are like McNearney: It does not have to happen to you. In fact, if you don’t “personalize” your politics and treat the other political side as unforgivable, destructive monsters who want to hurt people, you will not be angry all the time and hate your family members who disagree with you on politics. Taking all of the negatives of one political party, dialing them up to 11, and then assigning every offense to members of your family who voted for that party is totally optional.

But the Kimmel family has been undoubtedly broken by politics, thanks in part to Kimmel’s job as a late-night “comedian”/Democratic pundit. Kimmel proved that by explaining how he told his children it was Trump’s fault that his show got suspended after he lied about Charlie Kirk’s murderer to his audience.

YOUNG VOTERS ARE GROWING MORE TOLERANT OF POLITICAL VIOLENCE

A similar dynamic is reflected in how Jon Stewart, another late-night fixture, talks about his family. Trying to explain the exact same point that I am making, Stewart talked about “people in my family” who are “to the right of Attila the Hun,” but he loves them anyway. It’s a nice sentiment to hear, but it remains odd that Stewart and others must still frame it as “my relatives are right-wing, but I still love them,” as if that throat clearing is even necessary.

There is a lot of this hemming and hawing in liberal media about conservative relatives, and that is not something that has much of an equivalent on the Right. You do not see conservatives running around talking about how their uncles or nieces are left-wing communists, “but I love them anyway.” The qualifications aren’t necessary because most people outside the liberal media don’t allow their politics to become personal, and as a result, they aren’t “angry all the time” about politics and taking it out on their families.