Caroline Giuliani just published a piece in Vanity Fair in an open letter format. She explains what it’s like to try to talk to her father and what another four years of Donald Trump would mean. Here are a few paragraphs, and this is definitely one of those articles, that if you can read only one in full today, this should be it.
To anyone who feels overwhelmed or apathetic about this election, there is nothing I relate to more than desperation to escape corrosive political discourse. As a child, I saw firsthand the kind of cruel, selfish politics that Donald Trump has now inflicted on our country. It made me want to run as far away from them as possible. But trust me when I tell you: Running away does not solve the problem. We have to stand and fight. The only way to end this nightmare is to vote. There is hope on the horizon, but we’ll only grasp it if we elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
Around the age of 12, I would occasionally get into debates with my father, probably before I was emotionally equipped to handle such carnage. It was disheartening to feel how little power I had to change his mind, no matter how logical and above-my-pay-grade my arguments were. He always found a way to justify his party line, whatever it was at the time. Even though he was considered socially moderate for a Republican back in the day, we still often butted heads. When I tried to explain my belief that you don’t get to be considered benevolent on LGBTQ+ rights just because you have gay friends but don’t support gay marriage, I distinctly remember him firing back with an intensity fit for an opposing politican rather than one’s child. To be clear, I’m not sharing this anecdote to complain or criticize. I had an extremely privileged childhood and am grateful for everything I was given, including real-world lessons and complicated experiences like these. The point is to illustrate one of the many reasons I have a fraught relationship with politics, like so many of us do.
Even when there was an occasional flash of connection in these disagreements with my dad, it felt like nothing changed for the better, so I would retreat again until another issue I couldn’t stay silent on surfaced. Over the years other subjects like racial sensitivity (or lack thereof), sexism, policing, and the social safety net have all risen to this boiling point in me. It felt important to speak my mind, and I’m glad we at least managed to communicate at all. But the chasm was painful nonetheless, and has gotten exponentially more so in Trump’s era of chest-thumping partisan tribalism. I imagine many Americans can relate to the helpless feeling this confrontation cycle created in me, but we are not helpless. I may not be able to change my father’s mind, but together, we can vote this toxic administration out of office.
Rudy Giuliani is a dinosaur. His latest gaffe was to accidentally upload a video to You Tube, which showed him mocking a Chinese accent. He’s totally oblivious to the fact that what he’s doing is racist and cliche. That’s his mind set. He is from another age.
The video has since been deleted, but the Daily Beast has it embedded in this story. This is who and what Giuliani has descended to, because, like his buddy Donald Trump, he refused to grow and change as the world did. Both of them are throwbacks to another time, that is long gone, and good riddance to it. Kudos to Caroline Giuliani for having the strength of character and insight from an early age to rebel against all of this and move beyond it. None of Trump’s children have.
This is another lame f- up.
You’re speaking of Rudy’s Chinese imitation? That was incredible. He honestly is so tone deaf that he didn’t know how that would be received. He thinks it’s real that Chinese people all bow and say “ah so” and eat food in paper boxes.
Two idiots. An extremely brave daughter.
Bravo, Caroline Giuliani for coming forward and letting people know who you are voting for and why! Kudos, Kudos, Kudos!
The lesson I got from my environment when I did the same with Republicans: there is no changing a mind that is made up. Reason is powerless in the face of such emotional investment and ego. Best you can do is stop them until they realize where they went wrong…if ever.
You have to kill ’em at the ballot box. It’s the only way. Reason is futile with these people.
Ditto. U can’t pour anything into a full container. Their containers are full, of what, I think we all are in agreement on. And some people say we are a divided nation. We’ll see….
For them it’s all emotion and “gut feel” – they can’t recognize facts at all.
Whether or not Trump is ‘good’ for this country….how can you say that Biden/Harris is better? OMG…
At this point, the ticket of Cesare and Lucretia Borgia would be an improvement.
U need a new God ifu think that. Reading is a good skill. So is thinking. Try it. Oh, & watch something other than fox news & facebook.
Um, are you living on this planet, “Sue?” Are you even a real person?
I CANNOT believe that anyone with even 1 functioning brain cell could have posted such a comment, especially on this site.
Donald Trump IS the very blight on this country that the right-wing spent 2 DECADES portraying Hillary Clinton to be (and far too many brain-dead idiots fell for it and “progressives” were the worst of the bunch).
don’t feed the trolls, they are stupid and wander in every once in a while.
Gotta admit, though, Old…if this is the best they can come up with, they KNOW their preferred side is screwed.
They’re neither stupid nor corrupt. That’s a good start.
This is the problem facing our country. Over half of the people want to move ahead on climate, equality, and everything else. The other people are lost in the past and want to go back in time, and they can’t seem to see or accept the fact that what was in the past will no longer work in this world. As Ursula says so wisely that Rudy is a dinosaur and they are throwbacks to another time.
Saw a brief interview with her last night on Rachel Maddow. She is thoughtful, kind, very bright and very aware of the conflict-ridden issues this could create with her father–yet she had the strength and purpose of will and belief to write this terrific article. How many more of these folks are out there I wonder? And anyone remember the October surprise–not the dumb and dumber gang, but the one in which Anonymous was going to come out and declare him- or herself?