On Friday, a columnist for the Los Angeles Times noted that her Trump-loving neighbors had done her a favor and “plowed our driveway without being asked and did a great job,” but then compared them to Nazi supporters and Hezbollah terrorists, snapping, “My neighbors supported a man who showed near-murderous contempt for the majority of Americans. They kept him in business with their support,” before pontificating, “I also can’t give my neighbors absolution; it’s not mine to give.”
Former Fox News anchor and current podcast host Megyn Kelly fired back with some advice for the kindly neighbors: “This woman compares her Trump-supporting neighbors, who plowed her driveway, to Nazi sympathizers & Hezbollah & wrestles w/whether to show them any kindness since she ‘can’t give them absolution.’ Note to Virginia Heffernen’s neighbors: don’t plow again.”
This woman compares her Trump-supporting neighbors, who plowed her driveway, to Nazi sympathizers & Hezbollah & wrestles w/whether to show them any kindness since she “can’t give them absolution.”
Note to Virginia Heffernen’s neighbors: don’t plow again. https://t.co/ZZCnPfI46S— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) February 7, 2021
Heffernan began her diatribe by explaining, “Oh, heck no. The Trumpites next door to our pandemic getaway, who seem as devoted to the ex-president as you can get without being Q fans, just plowed our driveway without being asked and did a great job. How am I going to resist demands for unity in the face of this act of aggressive niceness?”
She even acknowledged this was no ordinary snow-shoveling: “Of course, on some level, I realize I owe them thanks — and, man, it really looks like the guy back-dragged the driveway like a pro — but how much thanks?”
After quoting actor Eddie Murphy from an old “Saturday Night Live” saying, “Slowly I began to realize that when white people are alone, they give things to each other. For free,” Heffernan segued to likening the neighbors to the terrorist group Hezbollah: “Hezbollah, the Shiite Islamist political party in Lebanon, also gives things away for free. … like other mafias, Hezbollah tends to its own — the Shiite sick, elderly and hungry. They offer protection and hospitality and win loyalty that way. And they also demand devotion to their brutal, us-versus-them anti-Sunni cause. Some of us are family, the favors say; the rest are infidels.”
Another comparison, this time to the racist, anti-Semitic preacher Louis Farrakhan: “While the Southern Poverty Law Center classifies him as a dangerous anti-Semite, much of his flock says he’s just a little screwy and unfailingly magnanimous. To them.”
Positing, “When someone helps you when you’re down, or snowed in, it’s almost impossible to regard them as a blight on the world. In fact, you’re more likely to be overwhelmed with gratitude and convinced of the person’s inherent goodness,” Heffernan recounted staying with a French family that said approvingly of World War II Nazis during the occupation of France, “We were happy because the Nazis were very polis (polite).”
Heffernan continued, “What do we do about the Trumpites around us? … Americans are expected to forgive and forget before we’ve even stitched up our wounds.”
She concluded, “I also can’t give my neighbors absolution; it’s not mine to give. Free driveway work, as nice as it is, is just not the same currency as justice and truth. To pretend it is would be to lie, and they probably aren’t looking for absolution anyway. But I can offer a standing invitation to make amends. Not with a snowplow but by recognizing the truth about the Trump administration and, more important, by working for justice for all those whom the administration harmed. Only when we work shoulder to shoulder to repair the damage of the last four years will we even begin to dig out of this storm.”