POLITICS: Learn the lesson of Christmas unity — or politics will tear us apart

A few days ago I realized with a shock that Advent was nearly over. 

I’d yet to get a tree, and I hadn’t even begun to hunt through the house for my nativity scene.

I’d been so preoccupied with political news, and the dueling diatribes of what’s being called the “MAGA civil war,” that I’d lost track of those dwindling days before the big day itself. 

I know politics is not the reason for the season, but here it was Christmas week and it’s all I’d been thinking about.

My ornaments and lights were all packed away where I stashed them last year, and my grocery-store pie crusts sat ice-cold in the freezer.

Presents were still unwrapped, sitting in the brown cardboard boxes they’d been delivered in.

I’d done the thing I’ve warned everyone else not to do: I got caught up in the political fights of others.

In the days leading up to the holy Christian day, pundits and podcasters on the right took aim at each other.

They weren’t even hashing out questions of policy or substance, just jousting and name-calling.

This year has been tumultuous as politics has infiltrated every aspect of American life.

Influencers and electeds expect us all to choose sides in their fights — and we’re falling for it.

But President Trump’s allies need to take the Christmas spirit to heart: It’s the time when you get together with people you don’t always agree with. 

Because if Republicans can’t get their house in order, their stupid infighting will sink his agenda.

No matter how much conservatives may disagree, their message beats the Democrats’ alternative.

Leftists have used the story of the nativity as a pro-immigration cudgel, claiming that ICE would deport the baby Jesus — but they’d just as soon abort him.

They can’t comprehend the Christ child and his parents were returning home to Bethlehem, not going someplace they didn’t belong.

I had barely enough time to pick up a few final gifts and some cheese for the cheese board before blessedly shutting my mind to politics for a few days — at least, I hoped so.

But I fear that not everyone in my family will want to put down the political baton. 

Twenty years ago, no one was bringing up white guilt while you were eating your cinnamon buns on Christmas morning.

It’s not that holidays with the fam were easy back then — but the quibbles and squabbles we used to have were personal, not political.

Families would gather to open presents and share some nog, not worry about who thought what about Venezuelan drug traffickers, or tariffs, or New York City’s descent into socialism.

Then came the era of Trump Derangement Syndrome, and everyone lost their minds. 

We’ve gone down the wrong road. It’s time to get back to agreeing to disagree.

We have to focus on what we have in common — not just within a political party, but as Americans.

We need to stop tearing each other down just to bolster our own “side.”

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But until then, it feels easier to crack open a frozen lasagna-for-one than to invite everyone in, knowing the non-binary purple-haired 20-somethings will take up rhetorical arms against their allegedly racist uncles. 

I was weighing this option, and wondering if I’d run out of time to defrost the turkey, when an old friend of mine called and invited herself over for Christmas. 

I haven’t seen her in a while. We have different politics.

And I’m so glad she’s coming to visit with my family, break some bread and slice up some cran straight out of the can.

We won’t talk trans, Trump or warships; we won’t get into Vance, Crockett or Congress.

We’ll let all those things slide to the side and focus on what really matters.

We’ll talk about the milestones of our lives, and how the kids are doing now that they’re not children but teens. 

We’ll look at the twinkling Christmas-tree lights, and laugh about my ever-crooked top-of-the-tree star that I bought 30 years ago from a drugstore discount rack.

Politics is not the meaning of life.

The political class should remember that, too. 

We can’t let pundits’ and politicians’ feuds mess with our relationships. 

And the pundits, podcasters and politicians should focus on what Americans really care about: the price of turkey, the cost of fuel and building a strong nation that can withstand all storms.

That’s what we want most, and it takes unity to achieve it.

Libby Emmons is the editor-in-chief at the Post Millennial.