ArcaMax

Pick a Thanksgiving table, any Thanksgiving table in America, and it's sure to have a turkey and a grumpy uncle.

Sometimes they are one and the same, stuffed with all the trimmings.

As the midterms draw near, this November will be an especially heated month, right? We the people are so deeply carved down the center. There's no moderate middle ground.

As the presumptive winners of the House, the Democratic family members get the white meat. The Republicans will have to do with dark. The winner of the Senate gets dibs on pumpkin pie.

Oh, what a feast it will be for starved Democrats, after two long years in the Donald Trump wilderness. It feels like 40, right?

Elon Musk, Trump's loaded right-hand man, will gobble up leftovers at his knee like a DOGE, but he won't have a place at the table.

Everything we love, everything we thought we knew about America, is under siege.

Under the usual circumstances, the grumpy uncle could pass with his harsh social comments, his barely disguised racism and his loud voice trumpeting over the younger company.

Rolled eyes, yes, but an enforced respect for elders would give the grumpy uncle airtime.

Not this time. Politics isn't fun or funny anymore, not when the country hangs off a cliff. This is not what the pilgrims had in mind when they came to seek a New World.

For starters, they'd be shocked to hear of Trump starting a secret police, pardoning the Capitol rioters, cutting ties with Ukraine and other allies, seeking revenge on every person who defied him, and firing capable Black and women public servants to create a white male ruling class in his White House.

Trump has gone from offensive to truly outrageous every time he opens that turkey mouth and wattle neck. He can't stand the sound of silence. Someone should tell him it's his favorite color, golden.

For a president to say he doesn't care about affordability, and the price of gas, cuts against the grain American farmers are raising. Trump is trying to show he's immune to politics as usual. He can do whatever he wants, quote unquote.

Rural America is unhappy about the price of fertilizer, too, which has risen ever since Trump started the war on Iran in February.

But to cut down 400-500 trees at a waterfront public park violates us even more than building a White House ballroom. A building is one thing, chopping trees is another. That's un-American -- just ask George Washington.

Over and over, Trump has dared us to say, "No more."

No more insulting the good nation of Norway because he'll never win the Nobel Peace Prize. No more erotic leering at Sen. Jon Husted of Ohio. No more talk about IQ as if he passed the test.

Please, no more personal insults aimed like arrows at Democratic Senate candidates, especially a doctor from Michigan.

Most Michiganders -- Abraham Lincoln's clever term -- are better than that.

It's excruciating to hear his gutter talk, isn't it? Who votes for that?

The grumpy uncle is getting grumpier all the time, and he can't be allowed to dominate the table talk.

Why? Because there are no limits to his ranting and raving, coming straight from his very own gizzard voice.

The other adults at the table can't let the grumpy uncle domineer again in our shared spaces and national holidays. They have to take some responsibility, in other words, and not duck the turkey, the way Congress surrenders to Trump.

All joking aside, this grumpy uncle will not go gentle into that good night. He knows that impeachment is the menu's next course if he's rebuked by the hurting American people.

Trump will do anything not to lose -- and to confuse voters. Anything. "Rigged" is his new vocabulary word.

His political violence came home to haunt us once, and why not twice?

This White House turkey must not be pardoned but must perchance drown in a blue wave coming ashore.

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The author may be reached at JamieStiehm.com. To find out more about Jamie Stiehm and other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, please visit creators.com.

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