News and Commentary

Salon Op-Ed: I’m Skipping Christmas Because ‘Donald Trump Ruined’ It

   DailyWire.com
Oliver Contreras/For The Washington Post via Getty Images

Has President Trump’s promise to “Make Christmas Great Again” pushed hardcore leftists into becoming an angry horde of Scrooges? The latest op-ed from feminist Amanda Marcotte of Salon, titled “How Donald Trump ruined Christmas,” indicates that might be the case.

Even though Christmas was never “of great importance” to Marcotte, she admits that the holiday at least carried some level of meaning to her over the years. What little enthusiasm she had for the holiday, however, has all but evaporated in the age of Trump, who “ruins everything he touches.” As an atheist, Marcotte never appreciated the holiday’s religious roots, but she at least appreciated the time of “the nation coming together in the spirit of joy and generosity.” Even that, Marcotte claims, no longer holds sway over her.

“But all that feels like a lie in Trump’s America,” writes Marcotte. “Forget Tiny Tim declaring, ‘God bless us, everyone!’ It’s clear that for that 40% of people in the Trump cult, it’s closer to ‘Damn anyone to hell who isn’t exactly like us!'”

Marcotte charges Trump and his supporters of wielding the Christmas season to perpetuate some sort of white supremacist ethos that has driven a wedge between her and other Trump supporters, such as members of her own family.

“For me, it’s personal. My family is mostly a bunch of Trump voters, sucked up into a vortex of propaganda and lies, unable even to admit basic facts about the world that run contrary to what their tribal politics dictate,” she argues. “That sort of thing is stressful on a normal day but makes a mockery of the idea of familial love and harmony.”

“This isn’t a matter of political differences that can be set aside for the sake of the holiday,” she continues. “This is about not being able to make merry with people who think nothing of voting for a man who is on tape bragging about sexual assault, a man who cheats in elections and runs concentration camps on the border. A man whose racism has inspired a wave of terrorist violence, including in my hometown of El Paso, Texas.”

Though Marcotte stopped actually celebrating Christmas with her family out of convenience (the travel made it difficult), she will not even bother to celebrate it silently with her partner.

“It seems a little silly to make a big thing out of a holiday that just reminds me how my own family and so many other people in America have been sucked up into the Trump cult. I’d rather just read a book or binge-watch some TV,” she says. “Family is a touchy subject and the spirit of communal joy seems like a joke. The only thing left is the materialism of the season. Which, to be fair, seems to be going full force. The pull of capitalism is such that, unless you can plead poverty, the annual round of gift exchanges will go on no matter how much the nation appears to be collapsing around us.”

In response to the shame and condescension that will surely be coming her way as a result of this op-ed, Marcotte reminds her readers that she is “not a joyless person.”

“On the contrary, I’m a lucky and even privileged person, who gets to have a lot of fun in her life,” she concludes. “It’s just that Christmas isn’t fun for me anymore. It’s a sad reminder that we are not the country we pretend to be when we sing songs about love and joy at this supposedly wonderful time of the year.”

Got a tip worth investigating?

Your information could be the missing piece to an important story. Submit your tip today and make a difference.

Submit Tip
The Daily Wire   >  Read   >  Salon Op-Ed: I’m Skipping Christmas Because ‘Donald Trump Ruined’ It