Funny how the same newspaper publishes
The Vicious Reality Behind the Thanksgiving Myth yesterday and this piece today.
But it is still all Trump's fault.
5
We Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving in October and sometimes like this year if you celebrate Jewish Thanksgiving freezing in your shack watching football on television while smoking your cannabis and sharing your wisdom.
The Pilgrims were not refugees from England they were conquerors from the Netherlands.
The puritans lost the English Civil War and fled England for Holland because as horrible as life was back in the good old days Puritans believed suffering is the best elixir for a damaged soul and turned England into Hell on Earth when they started winning the war. Naturally when given the chance to thank the Puritans for all the wonderful suffering, the rewards they offered to those who dispensed pain and sorrow were rejected.
Holland had welcomed them but they sought sanctuary where they could receive and distribute suffering as was their wont.
7
I am Thankful for people of true integrity respect equality true equality for all.
Paul Krugman
Nancy Pelosi
Adam Shift
Corey Booker
Rachael Maddow
Ari Melber
Obama
And many more
28
"but his approval rating, at around 40 percent or a bit more, is if anything higher than the approval Viktor Orban commanded as he dismantled Hungary’s democracy"
And let us fondly remember GW Bush, whose approval rating hovered in the mid to upper 20's for the last few years of his presidency. Or A Hitler, whose party received 38% of the vote in the last free election before he dismantled the Weimar Republic.
A warning from history.
As my grammar school teachers used to say "a word to the wise is sufficient. A word to a fool falls on deaf ears."
Organize, and get out the vote!
41
Of the two turkeys in the photo, the one on the left is the better turkey.
15
Trump's mentality (and morality) is summarized by a tweet that he wrote about a year ago: “The losers all want what you have, don’t give it to them. Be strong & prosper, be weak & die!” It’s just like his response to having escaped paying taxes, when he said it was “because I am smart.” The man is an inveterate bum and idiot!!! And he admits it outright in this tweet. Someone told him early on about "losers" (undoubtedly his father). He has spent his life living with the mantra of "losers and winners." Pathetic, but there you have it. [And he is scared silly right now that the Democrats in the House will impeach him. Regardless of whether the Senate acquits him, the "stain" of impeachment will forever tag him as a "loser."]
26
And to who will innocent incarcerated children on the mexican border be giving thanks?
12
The NYT does not like the reminding of the 38 hung Sioux men mass execution by Lincoln in the 1862 uprising.
3
Around our Thanksgiving Day table were an old Catholic priest, a young believer in skiing, a fallen away Buddhist, two Yogis, and two Protestants. We sang and ate and rejoiced in one another. t rump wasn't invited, nor was anyone who might think him OK.
It hit me about the 30% ish of US who support the abomination who squats in our White House that their idea of "Freedom" seems to be the freedom to force me, at the point of a gun, to go to their church.
Can we please stop calling them "white nationalists" and "authoritarians", and especially "conservatives". They are perhaps all of those (except conservative) but they are mainly fascists. And some are plain in your face Nazis.
Language, as Orwell reminds us, has consequences and is important in framing debates. republicans' misuse of language is one reason we are so far down the sewer hole.
22
Are you and Charles Blow writing about the same holiday?
6
It was kind of funny to watch Trump with the turkeys and Conan the dog. He hates animals, and they obviously freak him out.
Seriously, I do not where to go with that observation, but his stupid sons kill big game animals, including elephants, which wildlife officials have said "is like shooting a parked car."
Trump has no compassion for people, and definitely not animals.
And spineless Republicans support this idiot who is constantly defying the law and our Constitution.
This is MY America. Trump will not take it down.
20
Thanksgiving what kind of bull
Veterans sleeping on the street broken tool
Children sleeping on bed of concrete
Not even given a bloody sheet
Sick people can't afford medication
Pharmaceuticals opioid money dedication
Working people in need of state welfare
Poverty wages for a dividend share
Mentally ill living under the bridge
The rich with caviar in the fridge
The administration full of crooks
American thanksgiving better take another look
9
Give a right wing Puritan extremist a fish he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he’ll burn down your village killing all men, women and children, sell the rest into slavery and incorporate a cult that will elect a white nationalist career criminal with NPD hundreds of years later.
11
Safe to say Paul Krugman and Charles Blow won’t be sharing a turkey leg anytime soon.
4
Send a copy to Charles Blow.
2
The Pilgrims weren't refugees. They were inflexible, abusive religious fanatics who imbuded our nation with religious fundamentalism that persists to this very day. Trump visited with the troops this Thanksgiving and they loved him. At my Thanksgiving, everyone expected a political brouhaha but we all happily discovered that, while we may not personally love Trump, we are all doing well under his presidency, and will vote for his reelection. No one at our table wants antisemitic, Democratic socialism. We'll suck it up, vote Trump, and use our tax cuts to enhance our communities while looking forward to a day when we, as a nation, truly take the real lesson away from Thanksgiving, which is to move past intractable disagreements while remembering that we are all countrymen and brethren.
4
Let's hear it for Drew Angerer, whose sense of timing and angle are flawless --and let's hear it for the NYT photo editor who called this one perfectly!
7
"Trump and company are, without question, white nationalists whose values are far closer to those of European blood-and-soil authoritarians than they are to the American tradition."
That the Times would allow this sentence to appear in print only shows what the paper has become. 63 million people voted for Trump in 2016, some of them Jews like myself who lost family in the Holocaust and whose family here fought in the civil rights movement.
To associate us with blood-and-soil is an act of supreme ignorance or blind hatred of those with a different perspective. The fact that a Nobel prize winner could make such a statement reflects dishonor on that great prize itself.
4
In our church yesterday, a lay reader led the congregation in "A Litany of Thanksgiving." The prayer went along briskly, and when we came to these two lines...
Leader: For the brave and courageous, who are patient in suffering and faithful in adversity,
All: We thank you, Lord.
Leader: For all valiant seekers after truth, liberty, and justice,
All: We thank you, Lord.
...all I could see in my mind's eye were the people who testified in the impeachment inquiry, and how proud they made me feel to be an American. What shining role models!
In fact, everywhere I turned during the service, I thought about the people I've been introduced to during the impeachment inquiry, and these people fall squarely into two camps: those who love America, and those who haven't the faintest clue what America is all about.There's the professional group of down-to-the-bone patriots and then there are the people who, I fear, would yell a Trump equivalent of "Sieg heil!" at the drop of a hat.
On Thanksgiving Day I heard words and phrases in church that I will clutch close to my heart, words and phrases of Judeo-Christian principles upon which this nation was founded:
forbearance
truth
honor
justice
purity
love
grace
excellence
And then there was this timely phrase: ...and the sojourner among you.
My fellow Americans, there is one way to crawl back from this debacle, and that's to impeach and remove.
Immediately.
My faith demands it.
18
Band of bigots, that a new one. How do you all expect to turn any voters when you insult republicans daily with hateful words.
4
I am Thankful that these values haven't died completely. https://madsociologistblog.com/2018/11/23/this-is-a-story-about-the-story-we-tell-about-the-first-thanksgiving-story/
1
The only thing Trump is good at other than lying is taking credit for other people's accomplishments. His father, Fred made a fortune and Trump claimed it was his while blowing through it. It is estimated that Trump, the fraud has managed to lose $1B so far in his miserable life. Obama saved the economy including the stock market and now Trump claims ownership of it. He promised that China would pay for the tariffs but Iowa farmers among others did. He promised Mexico would pay for the wall. Mexico laughed at him and the US military paid for what little wall has been built. He claimed his tax cuts would stimulate the economy but instead America's version of Russian Oligarchs enriched themselves by buying back their company stocks. There have always been about 25% of Americans who are too uninformed to recognize the truth. Under Trump and the Fox propaganda network that number has swelled to 40%. Anyone who still supports Trump at this point in time is unworthy to live in a democracy and under the rule of law. If left in charge of the Senate and the White House they will turn America into Nazi Germany.
23
For some perhaps most of us, we might want to be thankful that we still are able to hold onto about 200 years of the experiment of the rule of law and American Democracy.
No telling what will left of this with five more years of Trump and his party's goal of replacing all this with a dictatorship type of presidency for America, many of whom seem to want it.
9
Europeans destroyed the cultures and peoples of an entire hemisphere. Our Thanksgiving is rooted in that pillage. So it may be a fitting holiday for a President who defines this nation by racial and religious affinity, rather than humanitarian values. The holiday is best re-cast as a remembrance that we live on stolen ground and so should share that ground and its bounty with those who come to us empty-handed and without refuge.
472
@Arthur You wrote this: "Europeans destroyed the cultures and peoples of an entire hemisphere. Our Thanksgiving is rooted in that pillage"
The current NYT OP/ED pages have both of these headlines: "The Vicious Reality Behind the Thanksgiving Myth"
"The Horrible History of Thanksgiving"
Then Krugman has the audacity to write this: "Donald Trump and Fox News are now accusing progressives of waging a war on Thanksgiving, too, based on, well, nothing."
I guess he doesn't bother to read his own newspaper or reader comments. :-)
17
@Arthur. If you as well as others commenting here really believe that the ground you live on is stolen, perhaps you could share with the rest of us what you have done to give it back. Otherwise, it appears to be the same kind of virtue signaling that so many today appear to equate with actual action.
44
@Arthur
Actually, the worst is that much of that pillage WAS done in the name of humanitarian values.
We shouldn't forget that for centuries, many Western priests actively accepted colonization, BECAUSE they imagined that the West had invented not only the scientific experimental science of nature, but ALSO the very best way of living.
So as soon as they discovered native populations, instead of studying them, they imagined that when it comes to "civilization", they must be by definition "primitive", and as a consequence to be "educated" - and if that doesn't work, killed.
And today, once again, Evangelicals who support Trump do so for the exact same reasons: they imagine that only their way of living is "good", and that all people should live like that, and if they refuse, then the government should force them to do so.
And if in their uninformed perception, certain people threaten that way of living (refugees, their kids, ... ) then the government should use violence. Because for them, that's the only possible solution to impose their own values, which they imagine to be the most moral and most universal ones out there.
As to your idea of turning this holiday into a "remembrance that we live on stolen ground": that would be great, but it won't happen as long as so many "privileged" citizens feel deeply ashamed about what happened - so deeply that in order to be able to live with the past, they have to completely turn their gaze away and try to forget it...
38
Thanksgiving is a Rorschach test. People see in it whatever they want to see, as does Dr. Krugman, whose column is uncharacteristically full non-sequiturs, such as "Thanksgiving became an official holiday thanks to an 1863 proclamation by Abraham Lincoln. This was only a few months after he signed the Emancipation Proclamation and just a few weeks before he would deliver the Gettysburg Address, in which he declared that America is a nation dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. So Thanksgiving as we now celebrate it also commemorates the struggle to end slavery."
No, it doesn't, at least not by that "logic." But if that's what you want it to symbolize, nobody's stopping you, just as nobody is stopping the millions upon millions to whom it means only Turkey Day (as it is also popularly known).
Anyway, it's sad to see Dr. Krugman take leave of logic. But that's what Rorschach tests can do.
3
Thanksgiving celebrated in late November replaced the earlier national holiday of “Evacuation Day” (November 24), which celebrated the final evacuation of British troops from American soil following the American Revolution. The first evacuation day celebration was a dinner hosted by Governor Clinton for George Washington and his officers at Fraunces Tavern in New York. The dinner concluded with thirteen toasts, the eleventh of which was: “May America be an Asylum to the persecuted of the Earth.”
Obviously George Washington and his officers would not be welcomed by Trump.
6
New Yorker magazine has an article regarding the true nature of thanksgiving and the slaughter by some Pilgrams of indigenous peoples by cutting their heads off and staking them on pikes to alert any newcomers of what they might expect. So the myth of thanksgiving in fact is inconsistent with the true reality of the initial slaughters by the so-called "Pilgrams Pride" settlers who essentially wiped out the indigenous peoples both via disease and force. Not really anything we should be proud of.
3
The title of this column highlights the hubris of today's liberalism. If you disagree with a liberal you are evil and if you protect existing institutions and traditions you are evil. And if you are evil you need to be silenced and destroyed at least in the realm of politics. Furthermore it is imperative to American institutions and traditions because their survival make it more difficult to transform America into the socialist utopia promised by every other dictator in history from China to Russia to pick your South American workers' paradise: Venezuela, Cuba, Argentina?
It is this hubris and a resistance movement that should be arrested and tried for either libel, treason or sedition this is the reason that we are in a cold civil war that could easily turn hot.
4
Spot on opinion piece and the photo is indeed “perfect”, a turkey sits in the White House!
3
“Not only is it unique to our country…”
Canada celebrates Thanksgiving.
3
Thanks!
1
If Native American Indians had Trump’s immigration policies way back then, they would have put those European political refugees and religious asylum seekers in jail and their children in cages until they could build ships to send them all sailing back to Europe. Right?
9
Krugman has apparently not read Blow's OP-ED Thanksgiving piece.
Puritans and tolerance? I guess.
Why let the facts get in the way of a good polemic.
1
Beyond family and friends Americans have more to be thankful for than any country on earth. We have the right to rid ourselves of the Trumps and McConnells and Nuneses and Jordans and Guilianis who are doing their best to make us a small and ugly place.
Vote next November, that is one obligation you should be thankful for.
11
"accusing progressives of waging a war on Thanksgiving, too, based on, well, nothing."
Nothing, aside from today's examples, which clearly don't bother Krugman one iota because he's a progressive too, and buys into conflating unrelated concepts as a means of achieving goals unattainable using simple honesty.
Charles Blow's revisionist screed entitled:
The Horrible History of Thanksgiving
and David Silverman's revisionist screed entitled:
The Vicious Reality Behind the Thanksgiving Myth
are more than enough evidence that progressives, and the N Y Times, really do hate America.
2
Let us give thanks for sober, sensible yet positive columns such as this one.
6
Another nonsensical essay from Krugman totally colored by an advanced case of Trump Derangement Syndrome. And from the same fool who said Trump would plunge us into recession. Instead were the only major power not in recession. https://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/krugman-trump-global-recession-2016-231055
2
1862 mass execution of Native Americans : 38 Sious men ordered hanged by Lincoln.
Largest mass execution in US history .
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/dakota/Dak_account.html
This Thanksgiving I am grateful for Paul Krugman, not so much for the turkey and his giblets in the white house.
3
Which one is the turkey?
3
This sentence is cause for concern:
“Trump, like European white nationalists, is doing his best to remove all the guardrails that were supposed to limit abuse of power, while delegitimizing all opposition.”
This list four hallmarks of fascism: (1) racism (2) destruction of constitutional democratic norms (3) naked seizure of power, and (4) crushing dissent.
While I appreciate the NYT contributors criticizing Trump, it seems there is a fear to call him what he is directly, a fascist.
4
Trump Declares, let the little people have Thanks Giving!
2
The pilgrims came to America legally. The pilgrims did not get free medical help in emergency rooms, their children didnt get food stamps and free education. The native population did not pay for any of the above. There is no comparison.
Calling Trump racist, for not wanting illegals in this country, is not racist. He actually ran on building the wall. Are you calling over 60 million Americans who voted for him racist?
1
Isn't Black Friday the bigger holiday for Keynesians like Dr. Krugman?
Trickle-up may be better for the average person than trickle-down. But neither one leads to sustainability. It seems they both dovetail nicely with unbridled consumerism.
1
...and it is a harvest festival, a thank you for the food that will keep us alive through the cold dark winter, which expands to a general acknowledgment of all we are thankful for. For me the essentials of Thanksgiving are family, food, our animals, and a good nap.
3
Thank you for this, Mr. Krugman. The idea that progressives are waging a war on Thanksgiving is, of course, comical. I think it is time for thinking people to turn the spotlight right back on Trump and Fox and point out that they are doing everything in their power to undermine the values that actually make America great: "openness to people who look or act differently, religious tolerance, sympathy for the persecuted, belief in human equality." It is past time to call out those who are waging a war on the Constitution.
5
Sometimes it is difficult to respond to op-eds that mimic internal debates and after a week of considering logical fallacies and the consideration of American and Canadian Thanksgiving I know my submitted comments were not anything anyone wanted to read.
John Milton and Paradise Lost and an understanding of the English Civil war is a requirement of understanding the essence of America's divide. Knowing the Puritans were not refugees but were just your ordinary Europeans seeking conquest and instituting their values, ethics and customs needs a context never provided by our need for affirmation regardless of how unwarranted.
Explaining that conservative values and beliefs are irrational in a universe of constant change and entropy only leads to a more heated argument when so few understand that science is about facts not wishes and hopes.
For people like myself explaining Jesus is a wise and honest brother not inflicting his understanding but sharing his humanism is well nie impossible. I give thanks for science telling me my ideas are wrong almost as often as I am correct.
Ignorance is only bliss when you believe ignorance has redeeming qualities and that was not what I was raised to believe. Evil is banal that is why it is so difficult to combat.
Sometimes faith is our most dangerous enemy. Sometimes I believe Trump is a disaster and sometimes I believe Trump expresses America's confusion as well as it can be expressed.
3
It’s hard to know if anything is true or just the first person encounter with the facts. I couldn’t see how the first pilgrims speaking in their King James vernacular could even communicate with the first American native and truth be told there was probably a little cannibalism going on then and in fact there is probably a lot of cannibalism in our past history. Which is why we are a mess today from a past remnants of evolutions and deconstructs.
Dr Krugman's labeling the Pilgrims--whom someone once branded "British rejects"--refugees, doesn't fully illustrate the treacherous times in which they and their rulers lived.
On one hand, James Stuart, the reigning British king, was a Roman Catholic who steadfastly believed in the principle of cuius regio eius religio--roughly, the king chooses the faith. Many of his subjects were, however, anything but disposed to let him call the shots in religious affairs, notwithstanding his divine right to govern.
On the other, memory of the peasants' revolt of 1381, in which the preacher John Ball famously asked, "When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?", remained etched frighteningly on the conscience of the nobility. Lords and ladies shuddered at thought of fourteen year-old Richard II admonishing the rebellious masses, "Serfs you were and serfs you are; you shall remain in bondage, not hitherto as you have been subject, but incomparably viler."
In those perilous circumstances, one wonders if James's harsh treatment of those separatists was less an act of persecution and more of self-preservation.
2
Like most "Times" opinion columns, Editorials, and even reporting the criticism of Trump is often on factors of his character, ideology, religiosity, racism, nationalism, demeanor, authoritarianism, duplicity, and many (too many to count) other egregious flaws --- but yet very seldom, close to never criticizing Trump for acting exactly like an insane and dangerous Emperor (are there any other kinds?), not his MEGA banner policy of "Making Empire Great Again".
Yet, among academics, political scientists, historians, public intellectuals, foreign policy authors, and scholars of imperialism, there is an increasing flood of research and books on the subject of the "American Empire" --- including the 32 books from the turn of the century now approaching the third decade of the 21st century, and along with a vast number of articles, and academic papers in the on-line source of "Academia" which continues to a plethora of new analyses on the subject, form, and disguised nature of a "Quiet American" [Graham Greene] absence of discussing much about this topical problem in the general press, on the 'supposedly' left of center TV political 'shows' on [CNN, MSNBC, etc.] and the total lack of any Democratic candidate discussions, debates, and 'so-called' policy positions on these important "Issues".
Regarding "Issues", the old saying:
"Can't see the Forest for the Trees" seems to be a modern political analogy to
"Can't see the Empire for the Issues".
"Times" for Empire to be outed
2
In the reign of Tsar Trump and party courtiers, Paul Krugman, nobel economist, makes a living as a columnist just bashing the worst president in our history on all counts.
What a great gig, a piece of cake. We could all write it.
But we deserve better from Krugman-- we need postive, concrete policy talk, to start the process of reform, to bring America up to the standards of other advanced, capitalist democracies.
Then maybe we can avoid future authoritarian, exploitive presidents, using their PR to fool too many voters again.
1
I'm sick of yet another column that yet again only aims to bash our criminal, mentally unbalanced authoritarian president. Using the Thanksgiving angle is yet a new way. It's valid but --enough already. We know. Makes me choke on my turkey dinner.
Paul Krugman, with your expertise in economics, we need you to explain and focus on the concrete policies that will combat our extreme economic inequality. Trace back what prepared the political soil for a Trump-type to even run, much less actually win.
Give us proposals with data that will be convincing to voters, for their own interests, well being and financial security, so as to re-engineer our politics. That way we can rid ourselves of the Trumps of the world. Or is that to 'radical and left wing' in today's politics?
If we don't start reforms we need---better Representation for our Taxation, reform of our campaign finance system, health care for everyone, jobs, education and training --- then future swamp creatures lurk, ready to swim to the surface and take power. It's inevitable.
Meanwhile, your columns are getting so repetitive and boring--they tell us what we already painfully know about Trump/GOP-- just from different angles-- and add nothing to our future prospects.
4
"Donald Trump and Fox News are now accusing progressives of waging a war on Thanksgiving, too, based on, well, nothing." Really, Dr. Krugman? Look at Charles Blow's article in this newspaper to see the extent to which liberals are willing to go to strip the fun out of even the most harmless of American traditions: getting together with family and enjoying good food.
2
Of course, Blow’s column and others were historically accurate, and I understand the real backstory is beginning to be taught in elementary schools. Good. But I get it: The truth hurts. While it appears that woke liberals just want to rain on everybody’s Macy’s Day Parade, they do have a point. As someone pointed out, there is not a single Nazi monument standing in Germany and for good reason: wrong is wrong. But as you say, all this historical correctness takes the all the fun out of the holiday. Maybe we should simply take the phony baloney childish fairy tale out of the holiday altogether and just call it Gratitude day or better yet, Thanksgiving will do quite nicely as it is. No need to keep the whitewashed story connected to the holiday which I agree, is a good one. So let’s chow down on the turkey and enjoy a day of gratitude for our bounty, family and friends.
3
Here is a bit more of the backstory to Mr. Krugman's curious phrase "the benign meeting of races and cultures" :
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/11/29/pilgrim-songs/
Sort of a long read, but it's well worth scrolling down to the verses at the end of the article and singing them to their tune "Old Hundred", which many recognize as the Doxology, to the words "Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow".
1
"Thanksgiving is, in short, a truly American holiday. Not only is it unique to our country, ..."
Er, no.
Martin Frobisher, 1578 in the Canadian arctic, Samuel de Champlain 1606 in Nova Scotia.
Our Thanksgiving is in October, when the real harvest occurs. The turkey and pumpkin pie are just as real and delicious across the border.
3
Isn't Dr. Krugman overdue for a lengthy sabbatical somewhere distant? (Or is he now emeritus and the only thing left is the Big Sabbatical?)
Dr. Krugman does not help his faithful readers see through the eyes of the other... just the opposite, in fact.
IMO, our country needs to free itself from the grip of mainstream media, de-politicize and work together again - locally and inclusively.
Tune-out, turn-off and drop-in.
Liberals should recognize that the times changed... and kept changing. The Establishment that protects the status-quo is still very real - it just flipped political affiliations.
3
I have at different times in my life seriously considered the carnage and heartbreak of the Civil War.
Until recently, I've never considered the fear that the possibility of The Union dissolving could instill.
It makes me want to fight the forces of Fascism head on to eradicate in them in America in this century.
Survival of the human species on the planet is going to rely upon a certain amount of Socialism.
trump's survival depends on a vast amount of Fascism.
4
I am thankful this year that I know the fate of our nation will be determined at the ballot box in 2020. If we deserve Trump at the helm then we certainly will be able to re-elect him and his party back to power. However, I believe that our Thanksgiving in 2020 will be a celebration of the victory of our democratic spirit and the eviction of the Trump Republicans, they will be sent back to their white enclaves in the far reaches of middle America while we get to work restoring our nations grace, dignity, and respect. I would encourage Republicans to spend the year making up for the damages they've caused to the fabric of America.
4
The heartbreak of being human. Our ancestors slaughtered the Native Americans who welcomed and helped them survive. When our ancestors did this at Plymouth, our government had not yet been created. When our ancestors began enslaving black people and enjoyed tormenting them on fine evenings, raping all and sundry, hanging men up and beating them, our Constitution was still in the future. We have tried to live up to it at times. Lincoln created a holiday based on a fantasy to try and hold a nation together because he believed even though he was murdered for setting black people free. At times like these, we are clearly abandoning our Founders' guidance. What do we have to be thankful for? Hopefully, our families did right by us and our communities. Maybe they abused us in secret. Maybe we were truly nourished and cared for. Do we have the courage to remember things as they actually were, deal with the heartbreak when we or those we depend on have not lived up to the better angels of our nature, and keep going in spite of it all? Thanksgiving reminds us to try.
1
Mr. Krugman. Do you not read your own newspaper? Two opinions were featured prominently on Thanksgiving Day and their titles say it all...
"The Vicious Myth of Thanksgiving" by David J. Silverman
"The Horrible History of Thanksgiving" by Charles Blow
Sure dampened my holiday spirit. And Trump had nothing to do with it.
1
While the right blathers on about a war on Christmas and now on Thanksgiving, the holiday most under attack, an attack that is at least a half century old, an attack now generaled by Trump and waged all these decades by republicans is the 4th of July. And no one appears to give a hoot.
1
It seems it would be good to Americans who think that Abraham Lincoln had the sacred gesture to create Thanksgiving of the 1862 native American rebellion when Lincoln had 38 Americans ( it is an insult to their memory to call them " native " ) hanging in the largest mass execution in the history of the USA.
https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=1862+native+rebellion&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
1
Those who claim to be republicans are an eye opening group of hypocrites. We have evangelicals who ignore the basis of their beliefs. We have elites with a mindset they got to where they are all on their own and still believe everyone is created equal, a very convenient thought issued 250 years ago by wealthy white men. I don't know how the system works, but neither does anyone else. All I know is that one is born into this world and it's a throw of the dice where we end up.....some privileged, some poor, some healthy, some only to die young, some with white parents, some with black parents, some born in Africa, some born in Mexico, some born in Canada. If anyone thinks we have control over this, then they must be a republican.
3
Anyone reading George Washington's original Thanksgiving Day proclamation would understand a piece which contains "supplications and prayers to the Lord and ruler of nations..."would be mocked by modern liberals.
Modern liberals have eliminated prayer in school, prosecuted Christian business folks for refusing to make specific cakes,floral arrangements and photography. Memorials to war dead containing a cross unceremoniously removed, Christians being ridiculed as believing in myths, leftist Democrats advocating Church taxation etc. Many Democrats are moving closer to Marxsism who consider faith an opium of the masses.
Mr Krugman sounds like a Classic Liberal in this piece, a species extinct in today's Democrat Party.
2
A high school journalism class studied fox news for a year after fox reported a false story about the school;One year of focus on fox, data, statistics, chart comparisons and the result is that 70% of what fox reports is wrong, either intentionally or by lack of competence, but 50% of that is complete &total lie telling;the war on thanksgiving just one example; &if the brain washed who believe fox lies knew who viktor orban is &how he dismantled Hungary's democracy with paul manafort, don's campaign mgr., as part of manafort's 10 year job working on Putin's Global Vision at 10 $ million per year, paid to Manafort by Russian oligarchs to dismantle global democracies so Putin can rebuild the Russian Empire, maybe they could see trump doing the same here, helping putin by cutting US aid to NATO substantially, just now, to help putin attack & take over countries in his insane path to world domination, that don signed on to help him with & Manafort created back channels to Putin & the collusion; I am thankful I grew up in a time &with parents who believed in Democracy, who believed in live & let live, &I am afraid for future generations, for the children of trump supporters too, who will let their hate, racism, inability to live & let live destroy our Democracy &devolve us into an authoritarian state;Many GOP Congressman, McConnell,Graham,accepted big $ donations from Russians in 2016;read Dallas News, Dec. 2017, Expose on How Russians Funneled Millions to the GOP & many updates
4
Excellent column! Thank you!
1
Democrats should tread very carefully with the planned impeachment. Mr Schiff has made a proper mess of the proceedings by not allowing a reasonable level of due process.
2
Reasoned44 -
What happened in the Intelligence Committee was an inquiry not a trial. And the rules they used were heavily based on the Rules the Republicans set up for the Clinton inquiry. Those rules included equal time for Republicans to ask questions of the witnesses (which they used), the right for them to propose witnesses (which they availed themselves of), and to the same amount of time to make opening and closing remarks after each set of witnesses (that the ranking member took advantage of). Each of the witnesses that the Democrats called provided material that directly impacted the narrow focus of the Democrats inquiry. And even the witnesses that the Republicans called provided testimony under oath that was not, on the average, exculpatory of Trump.
Trump clearly violated the law when he withheld Congressionally allotted aid to Ukraine without notifying Congress as is required in the law. That law was made during Richard Nixon’s presidency. Nixon vetoed it, and a majority of members of both parties, in both the House and Senate voted to override the veto, and so the legislation became law. The fact that Trump withheld the money in order to get politically useful announcements by the President of Ukraine, fits the use of the terms “bribery” and ‘High Crimes and misdemeanors” as our Founding Fathers understood them to mean.
Lastly, where was “due process” in the Benghazi investigations of Sec. Clinton in Congress? It was M.I.A.
15
@Reasoned44: Suspects don’t have a say in what and how the police investigates, for obvious reasons. Due process is part of the trial phase, after charges are brought.
4
Well, then, perhaps the Republicans shouldn’t of written the rules that way, huh?
4
To my mind, Lincoln was our most spiritually and philosophically mature President. Trump is at the bottom on both counts. It takes a true leader to call a nation to an attitude of Thanksgiving in the midst of a brutal war. Trump calls us to elevate Greed as our highest national ideal. The degradation of our political life is truly shocking.
1325
@LewisPG
Author Robert M. Pirsig put Lincoln in the same league as Jesus, Buddha, and Plato.
At times, others gainsay Lincoln's spirituality because it was Christian by label. But his reading of the Bible was really a deep meditation on human life and the human condition.
Lincoln was an old soul. We could use another now.
377
@Wordsworth from Wadsworth
I don't see how Lincoln needs an apology for being Christian. Christianity has inspired some great thinkers and moralists as well as some of the worst.
39
@LewisPG
On December 26, 1862 ,38 Dalota men were hung at Mankato Minnesota by order of Abraham Lincoln for their role in the Great Dakota uprising. It remains the biggest mass execution in American history.
About 250+ had their death sentences converted to imprisonment. They along with Dakota men, women and children were forcibly marched to concentration camps in the middle of deadly winter.
The estimates of Civil War dead 600-750 thousand far exceed all American war dead in every other conflict combined.
Lincoln's goal was preservation of the Union. It wasn't emancipation. Enslaved Africans remained in loyal Union states.
The Emancipation Proclamation is a dry geographical strategic war document that waited until Antietam to be sprung to life. But it didn't ' free" any slaves in areas under Confederate control.
Abraham Lincoln was a partisan secular politician. American Presidents are not philosphers nor spiritual leaders.
Lincoln was no John Brown nor Frederick Douglass nor Harriet Tubman nor Martin Delany nor Gabriel Prosser nor Denmark Vesey nor Nat Turner.
18
Paul rightly says, "Thanksgiving is, in short, a truly American holiday. Not only is it unique to our country, it’s a celebration of the values that actually make America great: openness to people who look or act differently, religious tolerance, sympathy for the persecuted, belief in human equality" --- and the foremost "values that actually make America great" one would think that 'our country' became a country by overthrowing the British (nearly global) Empire. to form a democratic Republic.
Paul, as you conclude, "That’s why it’s a holiday true patriots, who believe in our nation’s underlying values (of democracy over Empire) should love — and one people like (Emperor) Trump and his (ill-historically informed) supporters should (more seriously remember and re-consider) rather hate."
As Justin du Rivage titled his 2014 deeply researched and definitive history of our first American "Revolution Against Empire".
It's only "Common Sense" that Empire is what our founders, farmers, tradesmen, sailors, patriots, and real "Tea Partiers" overthrew to form our promising country.
As Patrick might have shouted-out in his rallying-cry, if Thomas had taken the Paine to edit it:
"Give us Liberty over Empire, or Give us Death"
1
Dear Prof Krugman,
The people in their wisdom have selected Mr. Trump as President despite knowing his flaws and the continued expressions of unusual abnormalities. This means that the people who supported Mr Trump are still happy with him.
Democracy places a burden on our intellect and sense of social responsibility for the common good. It means that we must have a intelligent and moral people to make the right choice for the nation. Previously, the US in pushing democracy in other places have pointed out these prerequisites for a functional democracy.
We are waiting to hear: (1) when opponents would be arrested and sent to empty Guantanamo Bay, and supporters would still cheer on; (2) when the " Greatest President" would have his image craved on Mount Rushmore, and his supporters will still cheer on; and (3) why the US now resembles in some ways the countries the President detests and the people cheer on; (4) why the US is no longer a champion of democracy through the world, and the people still cheer on; and (5 ) why after such a long time the people still crave a king and now embrace the "Divine Right of Kings"
We outside the US are totally baffled, perhaps someone can explain this to us outsiders. Are we witnessing the demise of a great nation from within?
1
As a dual citizen of the United States and Canada - born and bred in the US, living in Canada over three decades - I've often wondered why Canadian thanksgiving and American thanksgiving are so different (up here we celebrated thanksgiving several months ago). In Canada it just doesn't seem to be special, lacking the warmth and the aura of goodness I remember from living in the United States. Reading your column makes it clear why this true. Thank you for your post.
1
Thanks Mr. Krugman. Well timed. I don't believe that the sense of being thankful has ever been felt by Trump. Rather than being grateful and appreciative for all he has (and all he has been given), he has always been on the lookout for more. He wants more money, bigger crowds and more credit, Therefore, rather than take a step back and give thanks, he is on a never-ending quest for what he doesn't have. Unfortunately for him, I doubt that will ever change.
2
"Furthermore, there’s no guarantee that we will emerge from this dark chapter as the nation we used to be."
We crossed that line a long time ago. We are no longer the nation we were in 2016 before this nightmare started. All that remains to be seen is what we are when this is over.
1
Thanks for this column celebrating the redeemable goodness of Thanksgiving.
Trump and Fox's attack on liberals over the fake controversy regarding Thanksgiving brings to mind Ann Coulter's book title accusing liberals of treason. These vile and unscrupulous attacks on true American patriots, those who often quietly and sometimes heroically personify the idealism of many who joined the world war against Fascism in 1941, have clarified a divide amongst the citizens of our nation.
On one side, we have those who condone or advocate racist beliefs and oppression, even unto murder. On the other, those who believe in a tolerant and multi-racial and cultural nation in the spirit of our founding. On the one side we have those who believe in remaking America as a Christian theocracy, and on the other those who hew to the original intent of separation of church and state. On the one side we have those who refuse to face up to the damage that fossil fuels have done to our planet, and on the other those who with great energy, imagination, and determination work to bring us to an alternate and sustainable future.
As we face this crisis, akin to that fought in the Civil War, let those who battle for the right never forget that this is not a matter of coming together in the middle. It is a battle that must first be won, and then - unlike 1866 - fought to the end to stamp out the undemocratic practices that have empowered a minority.
3
To make it clear, if it isn't, "the right as God gives us to see the right," not the right as in vs. left.
A North American holiday, you mean, Paul: we celebrate it too, as an official statutory holiday. Granted, it comes a month earlier, as we are pretty well into winter by this weekend, but we took to the idea at once. Even before you - arguably it started in 1578, on a ship looking for the Northwest passage.
A perfect column for us to stop and give thanks for all that we have - which includes ample strength and abilities to meet our current challenges.
It would be great to convert the holiday into a solemn yearly giving of thanks for the land itself, and to reflect on how better the indigenous peoples could be respected, celebrated, and elevated as a way of doing that. The best way to give thanks is to give back.
3
Prof. Krugman writes: "True, all too often we pay only lip service to these values; there have been many dark chapters in our nation’s history. But we’ve always managed to emerge from the darkness."
The crux is that it will probable take another generation before this country can completely emerge from the darkness, aka horror, of the Trump presidency and his cultish sycophants in both houses of Congress.
2
What a great piece. I've been around for 88 years starting the week FDR was inaugurated. Lots of historical firsts. Krugman reminds us that mature thinking, reflected by accommodative collaborative relationships, is a rare commodity these days. Looking over my long life life in behavioral terms, I think we are mere global adolescents. Let's hope we don't destroy ourselves before growing into more mature collaborative relationships. Valuing the Constitution and its inherency is a good place to start.
Happy Thanksgiving.
6
There is so much cognitive dissonance within the GOP, both among leaders and just Republican citizens. Really nothing makes sense to rational folks. Their only cohesive rallying cry is, "whatever makes the libs cry..." and that's how way too many of them roll.
3
At such a dark time in our history and in our time on this planet, it is a good gesture to suggest we have some good intentions in us. That when we sit down to the holiday feast we bring a level of concern for one another.
For whether we talk about it or not, we are facing a dire future where emigrants from political and climate upheaval regions will be forced to move. The large shifts of humanity for inhabitable places where weather and food permit will have an impact on each of us. I hope that we can get past this ridiculous time with the Trump Presidency and get to the serious work that lies ahead.
3
Thanksgiving in not unique to the US. Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving on the second Monday of November.
1
@Keith Bernard
October
1
If you have a chance try to attend an immigrant family's first Thanksgiving dinner. It's a celebration of them arriving in America and it is a reminder of what our ancestor must have felt when they first arrived.
1
Abraham Lincoln, who created Thanksgiving day had 38 Sioux men executed by hanging after the 1862 Sioux uprising.
300 were sentenced to death by mock US justice trials of 5 minutes where the defendants did not have representation and did not understand English .
Only 38 were executed in the still largest mass execution in US history .
In comparison. no confederate soldiers were executed for war crimes during the civil war .
3
In an attempt to be the least popular Thanksgiving guest I've been reminding people that Native Americans (in North America) had two domestic animals they raised for food, the turkey & the dog. Trump could have awarded a medal to an attack turkey & pardoned a dog raised for the slaughter.
Abraham Lincoln who created Thanksgiving day had 38 Sioux men hung after the 1862 Dakota uprising.
303 on 390 trialed Native Americans were sentenced to death in mock US justice trials were they were not allowed representation and did not understand english .
Lincoln had first declared that to spare excessive cruelty in the punishments he would only execute men who had committed violations of women and finding that only 2 men were condemned of rape he extended the punishments to other crimes.
38 were hung publicly in the largest mass execution in the US history.
Paul......I'll be more thankful than I've ever been next Thanksgiving when Trump is gone from the White House and he's facing indictment in the SDNY.
3
Having celebrated Thanksgiving on October 14 here in Canada, I did a doubletake when I saw Paul's phrase "Not only is [Thanksgiving] unique to our country...". Perhaps he meant Thanksgiving as observed idiosyncratically in the U.S.?
3
thanks for this. so much of the times is now given over to villification of even our best myths. that shouldn't be so. the pilgrims and America deserve better. too many of these articles this year in the times are as bitterly woke as the wsj/fox articles are self satisfied in their wallow in while privilege. this founding myth is as you observe multicultural, steeped in the search for religious freedom (a shared meal e,g. among people of different religions), and entwined with the abolitionism of the civil war, in which the pilgrims ' descendants (see e.g. colonel Shaw) played a prominent role. as the Bible says: without a vision, the people perish.
1
You’ll pardon me if I’m pretty sure that genuine freedom can’t be grounded on myths. Telling your little kid about Santa is one thing, and pretending about the Pilgrims is quite another.
pardon me but I recommend you read Joseph Campbell about myths before dismissing them do easily. btw, I meant white privilege ( not while privilege)
It is nice to hear Krugman praise Thanksgiving but, typically, he defines the Holiday to support his own TOP 3 or 4 list of things to be thankful for, then posits that Trump and supporters don't support those things.
Krugman's list are American values for sure but the fact that K and 63 million-plus Trump supporters have legitimate disagreements on specific policies (e.g. enforcement of borders, definition of asylum claims, affirmative action, etc.) does not indicate either side does not support equality under the law or is hostile to others not like them. Maybe Krugman has failed to notice the widespread increase in crime and social unrest in Europe from too-much, too-fast attempted but failing assimilation of mass migrants, especially Muslim. See recent reports from Oslo and Malmo for terrifying violence by gangs of young, "middle-eastern" men.
More disappointing is Krugman's failure to list many aspects of America for which broad swaths, if not a clear majority, of Americans are thankful: guarantees of individual freeedom in personal and economic matters, against collectivism that is gaining currency among the Left; our proud history of helping people around the world attain freedom from tyranny and lifting millions out of poverty, our unparallelled level of individual charity; our technology leadership that has changed the world and improved the lives of all people everywhere; and our comparatiely stable politcal system .
1
This article has so much misinformation. I am an immigrant from Poland and since I have retired I live there for three month every year.I have extended family there and have first hand information. Poland has a free speech and free press.Polish people chose the current government according to the democratic process.Poland looks wonderful and people who work hard have good lives there. It makes me happy.The current government eliminated tax evasions by many companies and accumulated a surplus that being used for the social programs.They introduced one-year maternity leave and gave families extra money for every child. All woman who had four or more children get a pension from the government.They work on introduction of minimal pension that would improve lives of the poorest retired people.You don’t see homeless or beggars in Poland.Young people in Poland do not pay taxes as it is subsidized and established by the current government.Actually within last years we have visited many European countries because we made it our priority. Poland along with Baltic States looks the most prosperous among west European countries.The public health care is available for everybody, it requires waiting in long lines and it is used mostly by the retired people.Working people can afford the private health care.Regarding President Trump, he is for legal and controlled emigration that Canada, Australia, Switzerland and others have.Nobody criticizes these countries for their immigration policies.
4
@KDz
Yes, I lived and worked 20 years in Germanic countries and was constantly amazed by Dr. Krugman's lack of knowledge of what was happening on the ground there for average Europeans. And yet, there he was, making his proclamations and telling us, "this is what you need to know"!
My only contention with your description here is that you may lead readers to believe that nationalized medicine and other public healthcare practices in most other European countries is subpar. This is definitely not the case in the Germanic countries, at least, imo.
2
@KDz Kudos for this important post. Krugman pretends to miss the import and intent of the always-clever, always ahead of his opponents, Trump. Clearly, Trump is touching very basic currents sweeping through our land, specifically, the incessant but increasing criticism of America by the Left/Dems, spurred/aided by the Post-modernists, who understand that to build the new society they want, they must first tear down and erase all existing value systems and beliefs. The NYT 1619 project is Exhibit A but one can hear it in every program on CNN and MSNBC and in every campaign speech or debate of the Dem candidates. So, Trump's reference to some who want to erase Thanksgiving or denigrate it will resonate loudly with a majority of Americans.
Actually, Krugman’s single mention of Poland slapped at the right-wingism of the ruling party, Law and Justice—which given their undermining of an independent judiciary, snotty comments about gay folks, pushing women to shut up and crank out more kids, racial politicking, and tendency to affiliate with much, much lousier political orgs, is pretty fair.
1
I don't mean to quibble but the US is not the only country that celebrates Thanksgiving. We do too. In Canada we celebrate it in October because our growing season ends sooner than in the US. In the Anglican church - Episcopal church to you - there is a harvest service every Fall in which thanks is given for the harvest. This tradition originated in Britain.
You folks may have a different set of historical associations to the event but you're not unique in a harvest thanksgiving celebration.
8
@T. Yates
We had friends who are from Vancouver Canada at our house for Thanksgiving yesterday. We asked them if Canada celebrates a Thanksgiving and they informed us. Happy Thanksgiving to you our good neighbors in Canada.
3
@T. Yates
Yes, Thanksgiving is the celebration of a successful harvest. Almost all countries with an agrarian tradition have a similar celebration- Oktoberfest for example. Back in the day, if you didn't have a successful harvest, you starved during the following Winter. So there was good reason to celebrate.
1
@T. Yates
I hope you don't have a Black Friday, too!
I believe nearly all societies with agrarian roots have a Thanksgiving, Erntedank, etc..
1
In a brilliant analysis in his 2005 book, Identities, Boundaries, and Social Ties, Charles Tilly talks of the history of de-democratization and reminds us that: "Contrary to the comforting image of democracy as a secure cave into which people can retreat forever from the buffeting of political storms, most regimes that have taken significant steps toward democracy over the last two centuries have later de-democratized at least temporarily . . . In the 20th-century Europe alone, after all, Greece, Italy, Germany, Spain, Portugal, and Vichy France provide visible, violent examples. Over the last half century, Latin America has added Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Peru, and Uruguay to the roster of democratic reversals. . . . De-democratization remains a possibility everywhere in the world." American democracy is at stake. It is critical that people of good will in the U.S. protect the vote, get out to vote, and vote for those who will honestly count the vote. Do not allow divisions among Democrats (i.e., the root of democracy). Support whoever is the nominee and do so vigorously.
8
Truth, logic, history, facts.... these are all inconsequential to Trump and his gang. That Thanksgiving is a popular holiday to Americans is all that matters. Since it's popular, Trump will claim ownership. It's that simple.
5
I too believe that Thanksgiving Day, which should remain a day of joy and family and unity of peoples should additionally be a day of recognition of the great harms done to indigenous people, African slaves and immigrants. No more fairy tales. Real, lasting unity can only be accomplished on the basis of truth and reconciliation. Of course Trumpers would screech at the very thought that Thanksgiving is not about the white man's conquest of North America.
4
I found the following quote which seems to describe much of Trump's administration:
"Elected president in 1920, Warren G. Harding promoted a "return to normalcy," which signaled a resurgence of nativism, isolationism, and rejection of the progressive era`s governmental activism. Overall, Harding`s policies reflected a conservative, laissez-faire attitude. His administration was blighted by scandals, but most of them did not surface until following his death of a stroke in office in August 1923. One of the most notorious of them was the Teapot Dome Scandal, which appalled the public for years after Harding`s death."
7
Thanks for those revealing thoughts. However, as an economist and an observer of the ups and downs of the capitalist system they appear to be oblivious the role that obscene American wealth plays in giving a 'pass' to POTUS. It is their system that is driving the country to authoritarianism and the 40 percent suckered into his continued tenure will bear the brunt of the system's depredations. For further enlightenment see www.slp.com.
4
Trump made a surprise visit to Afghanistan to serve Thanksgiving dinner to some of the military stationed there. He was dressed in his signature suit, red tie, and black cloak. The ensemble was finished off with his scowling face. What a perfect metaphor for the current discussion of what Thanksgiving truly began with. Native Americans still live in poverty, some on reservations located on some of the most barren areas of the country. Citizens of Afghanistan live in a place where the next day is not guaranteed. We, as a nation, are responsible for both. Trump's presence there with his track record of hate and racism, puts a ribbon around the whole thing.
8
I would not have been able to get out of bed today, if I didn’t believe that next Thanksgiving I would be thankful for a new President-elect.
10
Not to worry, Professor Krugman. Trump hates everything and everyone (including himself, but he's far too messed up to realize it, and that's probably the only thing saving him).
3
Giving thanks to Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi for leading our democracy back into the light of day.
18
Thank you Mr.Krugman. After yesterday's column by Mr. Blow I was totally bummed out. For just one day per year can we NOT BE Reminded over and over again about the EVILS wrought on to Native Americans and people of color . So in the present day America we can all come together and thank family and friends at the Thanksgiving table.
2
Hopefully, this nightmare wrought by the right wing will end soon. Wake up and VOTE DEMOCRATIC.
10
On the Tuesday before the holiday this week, the President* of the United States went to Florida, and he said something stupid.
You know, some people want to change the name ‘Thanksgiving.’ They don’t want to use the term ‘Thanksgiving.’ And that was true also with Christmas, but now everybody’s using Christmas again. But now we’re going to have to do a little work on Thanksgiving. People have different ideas why it shouldn’t be called Thanksgiving, but everybody in this room I know loves the name Thanksgiving, and we’re not changing it.
This is, of course, insane. It turns out that the idea was something that blew through the vacant alleys of his brain straight out of the Fox News Channel. It piggybacks on the equally delusional War on Christmas.
Joe McCarthy lives!
12
Molly McKew posted some obscure facts about Thanksgiving and Lincoln today.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1065479838151122944.html
Well said, Dr. K.
2
Great piece, Dr. Krugman.
2
Replace the Madison Avenue PR version of Thanksgiving with the historical realities Charles Blow enumerates in his column and you would have a holiday Donald Trump could love.
2
The river of dystopia runs broad and deep through the NYT during the traditional festive time of the year. You know the one where we give thanks for our families and the great nation of the world in which we are all blessed to live in. Instead Cassandra has set up shop in their midst where apoplectic proclamations seditious incites flow from the tips of their quills. That's not all bad for the yin to their yang of their inexorable displeasure is the over riding joy most feel when in the bosom of their loved ones during the holiday season.
2
The two biggest lies in today's America: 1) Republicans are "conservative;" and 2) "Christians" who support Trump care about or follow the teachings of Jesus.
15
The photo is great! And the opinion piece is too of course.
4
We need this type of insightful commentary about Trump and his supporters - as well as acknowledgement of the faithful opposition - on an ongoing and regular basis. The extremist bent that the GOP and their under-educated and evangelical adherents had taken must be countered and not permitted to become normalized. If Trump and the GOP can normalize their concept unbridled powers of "divine right" and annointment of this person as president, the next steps after "reelection" will be a much more intense and extreme repression of all centerist and left leaning thought and messengers, including the likely shut down of opposition press and educators, scientists, lawyers and judges. And jailing of any who dare dissent.
3
My fantasy is once again the Confederate states ask to secede.
This time we let them.
And they take the rest of the red states with them.
I would have to move but it would be worth it.
9
@Independent : That would also mean the African-American population of the US would be reduced by about 63%.
The US would be whiter.
@Jp
Thanks.
It's just a little humor, not to be taken seriously :-)
1
Trump and his Republican cronies are just plain old silly with such absurd allegations.
4
Great piece. I have one quibble. We in Canada also celebrate Thanksgiving and the values it represents. Maybe the fact that this history is shared, and it is not “uniquely American”, lends support to your argument.
8
Good article! Thanks.
Just a footnote, though.
"Thanksgiving is, in short, a truly American holiday. Not only is it unique to our country..."
Well, Canada has Thanksgiving as well. And though the US thanksgiving has its origin in 1621, the Canadian one goes back to 1578.
Both were made 'official' in the late 19th century, within 10 years of each other.
6
Trump doesn’t like Thanksgiving because it’s not about him. Despite all the handwringing in the press, we were able to sit and eat a meal together with relatives of many political stripes without an argument or even passing disagreement. We focused on the ties that bind us, not the occupant of the White House who would divide us.
6
I love the picture! One of the many reasons that I read the NYT --the best tongue-in-cheek writing and art.
5
What I like is getting together with friends/family to eat a really great traditional meal - without presents, carols, trees, lights, shopping, or all the rest of the trappings of that other winter holiday...
4
What about those who for one reason or another are not into history and crucial historical events? Millions of them. They are not into history because they are into the business of surviving. Paycheck to paycheck. Sometimes not even that. Still, those people have gratitude in their hearts. For being alive. For being able to smile seeing the neighbor grandpa walking his grandchild hoping that that little life will be one of fulfillment and health. Grateful to be able to still remember. Grateful to be able to see the dew on the rose on this November Thursday that brings family and friends around the Thanksgiving table. Nothing more and nothing less. Gratitude. Just like Lincoln. Making the most of being alive and not embittered, hoping for the best.
6
I help men and women who came to the United States as refugees prepare for their naturalization interview. The class before Thanksgiving we talk about their immigration experiences and who helped them when they first came to the U.S., comparing them to the English pilgrim experience. I also serve them my homemade pumpkin pie. I am thankful that this is one holiday that gives all of us the opportunity to remember our American beginning.
5
Very good!
However, Dr. Krugman says that Thanksgiving is "unique to our country." I have to point out that Canada also celebrates a Thanksgiving Day.
In Canada, Thanksgiving Day (French : Jour de l'Action de grâce), is sometimes called Canadian Thanksgiving to distinguish it from the American holiday of the same name. It is very similar to our holiday. It is an annual Canadian holiday, occurring on the second Monday in October, which celebrates the harvest and other blessings of the past year.
3
I'm a progressive so I'd like to agree with your assertion that the "attack on Thanksgiving" is "based on, well, nothing." But your column is on the page next to columns titled "The Vicious Reality Behind the Thanksgiving Myth" and "The Horrible History of Thanksgiving."
I support turning Columbus Day into Indigenous People's day. And I believe any conversation about debts owed for reparations to African Americans has to include an even bigger debt owed to the Native Americans.
If we are going to saddle Thanksgiving with the full weight of everything bad that happened to indigenous people in the American continent, then we might as well scrap the holiday right now.
3
@DCfromBoston
There is nothing wrong with gathering to share food with family and friends at this time of year. Sharing food produced as locally as possible is even better. What I don't like is the 'food coma' mentality that seems to come with this holiday, with all the recipes and menus that seem designed to stuff us just like turkeys. (Hmmm. . . . )
We had a buffalo pot roast yesterday, all sourced with local ingredients (except the garlic and onions, hard to grow here). Delicious and filling without overeating.
In past years, a big pot of potato soup and a platter of turkey wraps has been just as good. And maybe the start of a new, less ostentatious turkey day tradition.
It should be noted that while Orban’s support may be a bit less, there is also an openly fascist party in Hungary that has a significant amount of support, in addition to the fascist-leaning ruling party.
1
The difficulty is with history, mythology, and forgetting.
America's history leaves many of us ambivalent, and this ambivalence is what gives present Thanksgivings their Janus-faced nature. In order to build our national consciousness we layed many coats of a paint called mythology on this historical ambivalence. So Thanksgivings, often feasts to celebrate massacres or victories by settlers over colonized Indians, became peaceful shared meals that buried history below the patina of this mythologizing.
Part of this mythologizing has been dangerous in two ways.
Firstly, it presents those fleeing the Old World as persecuted for their beliefs, but often the religious were wholly intolerant of those who did not share their point of view. This is why New England descended into a theocracy, and the English crown often intervened to protect the rights of colonists against the overly zealous, just as Rome had to centuries earlier against Christian intolerance for any belief they deemed unworthy. But the myth of Roman and English intolerance of religion is one of the greatest lies Protestantism has foisted on the West.
Both related to, and along with this, is the tendency to give Our Side White Hats and the other side Black Hats. Rather than seeing Thanksgiving as expressing the better angels of our nature, I think it afford us the opportunity to begin a reconciliation here in America with our Original peoples, but it compels us to be as brutally honest as we were rapacious here.
1
Trump Declares, let the little people, have Thanks Giving!
2
Your leaving out the fact that the pilgrims ultimately slaughtered the Wampanoags not to mention the small pox epidemic they brought with them. Got to love those liberal pilgrims !!!
2
@George, liberal pilgrims? Is it absolutely necessary to label everyone? Is this what you think America needs?
Actually, when you recite the pledge of allegiance, you exactly ARE required to 'love those liberals', when you pledge 'ONE NATION, INDIVISIBLE'. Or do you not mean those words, citizen?
2
It took a Civil War and 600,000 deaths to end slavery and generations of protest to allow women to vote. Our history is largely in reaction to our failures as a nation.
The important question now is how we use the disaster that is the Trump Administration to help create a more perfect union. To me, the great issue is how do we make our democracy more competitive and inclusive. How do we end voter suppression? How do we remove the power of money from our elections? How do we end gerrymandering? How do we increase voter participation? How do we protect our elections from foreign interference?
Donald Trump and today’s Republican Party have illustrated how a determined minority of ideologues and grifters can pervert our Democracy. We need to take those lessons and make the necessary corrections in our self-governance, beginning with the 2020 election.
10
Truly a laughable article. White nationalists? Has Krugman not read any polls that show huge support for Trump from minorities including Blacks? Betray American values? Exactly which values is he speaking of? It's the Democrats that have stepped on American values like family. All of the cities in America with the highest number of single parent households are run by Democrats, from Mayors to city counsels. Who denigrates the American flag, another pillar of American values? The Democrats. Who interferes with and assaults police officers in the line of duty. Who hides criminals breaking the law by illegally immigrating to our country. Democrats. I could go on and on but I'm laughing too hard.
4
God help us! Even Thanksgiving is about Trump. Is this the only thing the Times ever thinks about?
5
In a few hours Thanksgiving will be over for this year and we won't have to see any more sour NYT opinion pieces using it to score anti-Trump political points. Get ready for the inevitable barrage of negative Christmas opinion articles coming up soon.
3
Assigning American values to Thanksgiving is a risky business. Even picking a date for the first Thanksgiving is rather hard. Lincoln did announce a Thanksgiving. However, so did George Washington in 1789. In fact, the practice is believed to have existed informally for centuries. There's at least some evidence Thanksgiving began in Holland during the 16th century's Eighty Years' War. The pilgrims are suspected to have imported the practice from the Dutch.
What we can say with some certainty is the pilgrims themselves were a byproduct of the Protestant Reformation. They fled religious persecution only to turn around persecute others. Involving Pilgrims in any conversation about modern Thanksgiving does effectively make the conversation denominational. We're talking about the evolution of US Protestantism from the Protestant Reformation through the Great Awakenings and into modern Evangelicals.
Thanksgiving is therefore also representative of White Anglo-Saxon power structures recurrent throughout US history and even today. WASP culture is a powerful force in American politics. Thanksgiving is a part of that culture whether you ever noticed it before or not. Everyone else is simply sharing in a 16th century European religious prayer ceremony.
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Trump wants a new name for Thanksgiving. How about this one.
HAPPY TRUMPGIVING.
I agree with most of this column but must take umbrage at the assertion that Thanksgiving is unique to USA. We all know that what is accurately described as American Thanksgiving is the month and half late imitation of proper Thanksgiving which occurs on the second Monday in October. It is celebrated across Canada and by Canadian ex-pats around the world. It features 4-down football games between rivals, the start of the NHL season, and fun in the autumn leaves. If it happens to coincide with First Nations People's Summer, it might involve a hike in the woods. Dinner includes turkey, pumpkin pie, and friendly discussion of how lucky we are to live in a multi-party, multicultural, bilingual parliamentary democracy blessed with fine public education and publicly funded health care for all.
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@Makidadi
3 Down football, that is. Typo.
I love the idea that liberals hate Thanksgiving. It is a reminder of the stupid lie that they hate Christmas. Let the idiots of the right wing and the susceptible to slander lap it up. Nothing better illustrates the self serving mendacity of the right in this media created fantasy world of our current state.
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This may have been my favorite Thanksgiving. The perfect touch to the holiday was the Trump as Rambo tweet. It perfectly sums up our times. Ugly, dark and stupid.
4
Wait, this is a holiday celebrating our better angels? I just got finished reading Charles Blow, who says Thanksgiving is testament to the white man's savagery. Too confusing. I'll just go for seconds on the turkey.
2
I just want to point out that Thanksgiving is not unique to the United States. Canada always gets the jump on us with theirs in October. Another blow to American exceptionalism.
2
Despite American exceptionalism, Thanksgiving is not "unique to [y]our country". We also celebrate it in Canada, albeit on a different date.
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The kind of people Trump wants to keep out because he wants to be that autocratic monarchy.
PK is stretching, or is it reaching. To think Turkey Day celebrates the struggle to end slavery means PK was raised somewhere in our country very, very foreign to what our children are taught today. If anything, Turkey Day should have been celebrated back during Plymouth days as being grateful the American Indians were there to save the lives of the white man from starvation. Besides, if PK got away from his desk and traveled around our great nation, he would see many who are still "slaves" to the "white man."
The meaning of Thanksgiving? Just when I was thinking it was about, dire travel warnings, instruction on handling hazardous materials and black Friday beginning on Thursday it turns out to be a Trump Thanksgiving. What's next a Trump Hanukkah, a Merry Trump Christmas and a Happy Trump New Year?
Have the first shots of the war on Christmas been fired? We'll find out in about a month or so but the War on Thanksgiving has already begun. The Woke columnist here now want to turn Thanksgiving into a national day of atonement not just for what the white man did to the red man but for the millions of turkey's "murdered" for our festivities.
Trump won't be around forever but liberal guilt over things they never did is not going anywhere.
If, and when, you stumble into an echo chamber of Trump's supporters (e.g. any of the many threads/conversations which occur amongst them on social media), you will begin to understand the vigor for their support for Trump and their hatred for anything liberal or inclusive or any of the many "values" being acclaimed by Dr Krugman. Their perspective is caused by the real harm caused to them and theirs by the globalization and liberalism, expecially over the past 40 years. Harm has been economic (jobs outsourced, factories offshored), as well as social (opioid, etc). They needed a savior and got one. He is corrupt, and despicable and is destroying the country as we know it; but, is there an alternative solution to the "real harm"? Building walls and cages seems to be the only solution on the table!
The idea that outsourcing jobs and offshoring production is the result of liberalism is absurd. Globalization properly understood is the globalization of capital in a drive to access ever more markets and resources. It is the executive and investor classes who fund the Republican Party that have pushed this agenda for forty years, to the detriment of American workers. Even now, Trump’s major trade bargaining points with China are about access to the China market for US companies, and protection of intellectual property rights, neither of which address the issues that are fundamental to American workers - competing against what is a near slave-wage workforce in a country with minimal environmental protections or workplace standards.
8
Trump personifies the Republican philosophy: lie, cheat, and steal to get ahead. But this time he got caught, and the Republicans are, as they have historically, saying it’s “ok”. They wish to let him, and them, to be able to continue lying, cheating, and stealing. This is not a new argument. Power to lie cheat and steal is acquired and defended by applying the philosophy to get the power and to keep the power. The only question is whether we have the courage to stop them.
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Although I did not want to read anything with the T name in it this Thanksgiving weekend, this is in an interesting story, and It didn't need to include that name to be interesting.
Trump stands for greed, conspicuous consumption, hate and distrust of others who are different. He's the standard bearer of a party that puts profits over our planet's welfare and the economic security of the masses. What monument will be erected for this beast? What holiday will be celebrated for this vile man?
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Great photo - one turkey to another.
I wonder if I can get a wallet sized copy of this photo?
I would take it out when people ask me which candidate I support.
I would show them the photo and ask them to guess!
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I'm more than tired of the multiple opinion pieces this week telling me what Thanksgiving is a celebration of. People, like Krugman, want to tell me about the "traditional portrait" of the first immigrants sharing a feast with native Americans and what that is supposed to mean for all of us. Charles Blow wants to weave in the racial aspects of white Europeans subjugating and killing those native Americans. My ancestors came here from the Mediterranean around 1900. My family has enjoyed Thanksgiving since I was a child. It was, and is, a day to be thankful. But we have made it a day to pause and be thankful for each other, our family, our good fortune. It is too bad that even on this day of thanks there are those that can't help but politicize it, lecture us about it and tell us how we should think about it.
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Trump hates Thanksgiving because he is grateful for NOTHING. He obviously does not believe in God. If anything, his greedy and rapacious nature is the antithesis of Christianity. He believes that all he has (money, property, power, etc.) came from his efforts alone, and should be used solely for his pleasure and comfort. Not that he's ever done an honest day's work in his life. His thinking is strictly "I got MINE!"
How awful it must be to dwell inside his head--to have no friends, to see everyone in the world as enemies who must be defeated and subdued, to see his wife and ex-wives as merely trophies of his "success" and fading masculinity, to see his children as apostles spreading his gospel of greed, and to see achieving the Presidency as just another opportunity to line his pockets at someone else's expense.
I would almost pity him, except that he's such a thoroughly EVIL excuse for a human being. If anyone ever belonged in a jail cell, it's Donald John Trump. I will be thankful when he and all his cronies finally leave the White House.
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I hope Kevin Dowd reads your column. Thanks.
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Liberal commenters here are telling us that the Pilgrims were a genocidal Taliban, while to conservative commenters they were heroes who struggled across the seas to bring the blessings of Englishmen and capitalism to these then-empty shores. The worst thing about ideologues is that they can’t accept history (or science or anything else) for what it is but must reinterpret it their way; in other words they don’t want us to grow up.
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Trump, FOX and the GOP all believe that Native Americans entered "their" country illegally.
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The popular liberal narrative that native populations should embrace being culturally replaced by fresh immigrants because their distant ancestors replaced the former natives is still a hilarious non sequitur.
Crazy Evangelicals
Try this one on for size
The Apocalypse is soon to come. It is all in GOD’s plan. And that “plan” even includes sinful Donald Trump, our American President. The reasoning; after the fall of Babylon in 539 BCE, the Persian king Cyrus the Great (like Trump sinful) freed exiled Judeans and allowed them to return to Judah. Trump they say is another Cyrus the Great.” He is GOD’S plan.”
These are Americans? We have a problem.
www.InquiryAbraham.com
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he loves it - a chance to pardon a few more turkeys - keeps him in practice over a holiday. plus the chance to pretend he's military despite the bone spurs and ignorance of UCMJ
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In this possibly unique case you are factually incorrect when you write: "Not only is it unique to our country..." Please see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_(Canada)
Permit me to point this out because people in other parts of this Earth share your ideals and values and judgements and want to encourage your struggles to keep alive and free what is best in America. We wonder what has happened. What will happen.
If America fails, how long would Canada be safe, I wonder and I worry for my children's' sake.
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More to the point,
Not only where the Pilgrims refugees and immigrants, they were the first recipients of "welfare."
They were entirely unprepared for the hardships of trying to colonize America,
It was the Native Americans who help them, taught them, gave them food etc.
It always seems to be darkest before the dawn, and complacency is a real... you know. We needed a wake up call to remind us that democracy is not for spectators, but players. To many good Americans have either not participated or been conned. If we don't educate ourselves and vote then Idiot will not be the last.
Maybe we will realize that our democracy is ready for its 232 year overhaul. Campaign finance reform, logical not political redistricting, and maybe term limits would go along way to moving both parties back towards the pragmatic center.
Now about that war on Christmas, you know the holiday that was stolen from a Roman holiday were slaves and masters changed places..
Oh Donny, fetch me my golf clubs, and I'll have a dirty little gimlet, 2 olives please.
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Donald Trump would love the 'real" Thankgiving.
The Pilgrims were white supremacist
prejudiced bigots. The English were cowardly corrupt moral degenerate liars and thieves. The English mercilessly killed the Indigenous men. women and children. Then they stole their lands and natural resources. No thanks nor giving was part of colonization and conquest.
See ' This Land Was Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving' David Silverman
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Actually Charles Blow nailed it. Thanksgiving is just another chapter in the American Narrative fairy tale that we use to indoctrinate our children to accept the genocidal crimes of
American imperialism.
I’m disappointed that Paul contributes to this myth.
Mike
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I just want to know if the photographer nearly died laughing.
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Typical Progressive drive-by history. The Puritans were an intolerable lot, but it was based upon religion not racism, the Quakers were banished to what is now Fall River
The Narragansett’s were not exactly innocent participants either. Metacomet aka King Philip waged a 10 month war that destroyed the 12 towns in what is now New England. A large portion of the population was wiped out on both sides and fighting was up close and personal, people weren’t just attacked they were slaughtered, women and children first.
The Great Swamp massacre with the help of other tribes, the Pequot and Mohegan wiped out most of the Narragansett’s. King Philip was soon captured and executed, his spouse and son were sold into slavery in Bermuda.
The Puritans also burned women at the stake accusing them of witchcraft without any evidence, only presumptions and hearsay. It was hysteria. Much like what we see today, minus the savagery.
Today the Progressives who have for decades enticed the Black man into a political trap and delivered absolutely nothing. Along comes a President who delivers not only for the Black man, but the Hispanics and women as well
And the Progressives, aka Puritans call him a white nationalist. The similarities are startling. intolerance.
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I appreciate the thrust of this piece. However, as this newspaper and many other sources have pointed out, Prof. Krugman is relating several of the comforting fallacies about Thanksgiving. The Pilgrims were NOT "refugees fleeing persecution by the English monarchy." They had migrated to the Netherlands, where their interpretation of Calvinist doctrine was welcome. They left the tolerance of that bustling corner of Europe because it was too worldly, and left for these shores to establish a society based on their own specific, strict rules for a godly society; in contemporary terms, they sought to establish a "caliphate."
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Glad to learn this tidbit today... “Thanksgiving became an official holiday thanks to an 1863 proclamation by Abraham Lincoln. This was only a few months after he signed the Emancipation Proclamation and just a few weeks before he would deliver the Gettysburg Address, in which he declared that America is a nation dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. So Thanksgiving as we now celebrate it also commemorates the struggle to end slavery.”
Lincoln truly was one of our great presidents.
No wonder today republicans like to remind their fox and friends viewers that Lincoln was a republican.
Unfortunately that is not the party he would be affiliated with in today’s political climate.
Republicans of the 1860s are NOT the republicans of the 1960s to today.
Just the opposite in fact . But hey, they speak to an ill-informed, undereducated crowd who believe in their alternate facts anyway.
Reading the Gettysburg Address, I see that it is the antithesis of something one could ever imagine the short fingered bigoted vulgarian in the Whitehouse EVER declaring for our nation today.
We are doomed.
I am thankful we made it this far.
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@Mandarine Just after Lincoln hung a hundred natives in the 1862 rebellion. You just forgot to mention that on this day of Thanksgiving.
The great American politician had native Americans hang by their neck because they were expressing discontent with the politics of the USA towards them.
And just before the civil war which was about the abuse of other people.
@JPH in a little corner...
not on the front page please.
This is truly one of Paul's greatest columns. Well written, it strikes to the heart of where we are at right now in America in the age of Trump.
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When one considers all the sectarian, religious, ethnic and whatever strive in so many countries, it is almost a miracle that peoples from every country in the world have settled here and become one people. To this incredible phenomenon I credit the English language (everyone learns to speak it sooner rather than later), the public school system, and Thanksgiving (every person of every cultural background seems to celebrate it in some way). Thanksgiving has helped us all feel that we are Americans, sharing in this one national holiday in which we all participate.
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Thanksgiving—the action, not the holiday—requires the basic humility of acknowledging that we are not the only source of our own good.
It includes thanks for other people and relationships as well as for food and other material things.
It's incompatible with bragging and self-aggrandizement, as well as with whining and victimization. Need I say more?
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When we sat around our dinner table and stated what we were thankful this year, I said I was thankful for the courage of Lt. Col. Alex Vidman. At the end of his prepared statement, speaking to his father, he stated that it is alright to speak truth against his commander-in-chief since this is America. It helped bring into perspective what America has strived for; rules that apply and protect all. We haven’t reached that point yet, but that doesn’t mean we don’t keep trying.
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How I fight Trump: I try to live every day being the best citizen I can be.
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To me, Thanksgiving is the time for peace, quite, and joyful. But my wife dragged me to the mall for shopping. She has her reason to do so, and I always support her activities. Although I didn't get peace and quietness, but I did get joyful thanks.
I especially appreciate Mr. Krugman to mention that multicultural & immigrational spirits are true Thanksgiving things. I love it. I really don't care about Mr. Trump, who happens to be hawkish, noisy, and sometimes unwelcome figure. Let's forget him and enjoy our holidays.
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thank you Paul Krugman. Abraham Lincoln has always been our best president IMO and I forgot he started Thanksgiving in the midst of the Civil War asking Americans to give thanks to the Almighty for all the wonderful gift we have. Gratitude. Recognition of all the blessings and wonderful things we Americans have received.
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Nope ... not uniquely American.
We Canadian expats get to celebrate Thanksgiving twice. Imagine turkey dinner in October (“Thanksgiving”), November (“American Thanksgiving”), and December (Christmas, or just because).
On behalf of all Canadians, I invite all Americans to join us in our Thanksgiving 2020 (selfishly it would make it much easier to acquire a turkey in October).
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Sadly the new view of Thanksgiving is that it celebrates everything that is BAD about America...white America.... nothing the USA has ever done has been good..read White America... Thanksgiving wasn’t set up to celebrate genocide. It was set up to celebrate generosity and friendship with all. It was a aspirational hope but as usual we fall short but that doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate the hope and dreams of those who believe in these values....those of all races and creeds who don’t believe that the only way one group can be happy is by denigrating another and those who believe sharing is a joy and a necessity.
Celebrate Thanksgiving and be happy that you can. Tell those who want to divide us: NO!
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Your assumption about why Thanksgiving was set up is incorrect: it actually was set up to commemorate a massacre of 700 native peoples including women and children by European settlers: http://www.thepeoplespaths.net/history/ThanksgivingDayMassacre.htm
The turkey in the foreground cares more for the environment than the turkey in the background. He is more honest as well.
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“Thanksgiving is, in short, a truly American holiday. Not only is it unique to our country, it’s a celebration of the values that actually make America great: openness to people who look or act differently, religious tolerance, sympathy for the persecuted, belief in human equality.”
Nice to see that Mr. Krugman does not share the cherry-picked, one-sided, Debbie Downer view of Thanksgiving served up by Charles Blow.
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Note that the commenter takes a swipe at Charles Blow while completely ignoring why Thanksgiving was originally established: to commemorate the massacre of 700 native peoples by European settlers http://www.thepeoplespaths.net/history/ThanksgivingDayMassacre.htm
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@NorthernVirginia :
I think both columnists are correct, because the fact is that we Americans - like all people - are complicated and multifaceted, neither all-good nor all-bad. There is both sincerity and hypocrisy in our celebration of Thanksgiving, and that's okay, because it's essential to be aware of the negative while striving for the positive. Happy Thanksgiving to all!
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@Sdtrueman
The link you give is an account of one of the many horrific incidents of genocide against Native Americans - that both Krugman and Blow acknowledge. But it's not at all clear that this is the same 'Thanksgiving' holiday that Lincoln declared - unless you can show that he referenced this earlier (and clearly racist) use of the term. I doubt he did.
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This is at least the third version of just “what Thanksgiving really means” that I have read in the Times in the past couple of days. In all of them, of course, the Pilgrims are the cruel oppressors and the Natives the innocent victims. And here, predictably, in a nation of almost exclusively Christians (in Lincoln’s day), we are told that Lincoln intended that Thanksgiving was not meant to be about thanking the God of Moses or Jesus the Christ, but whoever or whatever a person wanted. Do you not understand that this wholesale rewriting of history is in large part why so many of us reject the left? And why, when the only alternative to the left’s corrosive view of American history is Trump—with all of his warts, we choose him? No, you do not. But that is okay. It is why he won in 2016 and may well win again in 2020.
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Do you not understand that the Right also rewrites history to its own satisfaction—downplaying slavery and Jim Crow, glorifying even the worst capitalist excesses, etc. Real history is the remedy.
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"When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion."
Abraham Lincoln
The notion that Thanksgiving is uniquely American is very odd....here's an excerpt from The Canadian Encyclopedia....."The first Thanksgiving by Europeans in North America was held by Sir Martin Frobisher and his crew in the Eastern Arctic in 1578. They ate a meal of salt beef, biscuits and mushy peas to celebrate and give thanks for their safe arrival in what is now Nunavut. They celebrated Communion and formally expressed their thanks through the ship’s Chaplain, Robert Wolfall, who, according to explorer Richard Collinson, “made unto them a godly sermon, exhorting them especially to be thankefull to God for theyr strange and miraculous deliverance in those so dangerous places [sic].”
Trump has also threatened civil war. I assume this would not be a war between the states. More like a a race war, an age war, an economic war, and cages would not be just for children. If you think public executions could never happen here, please update your perception of history. The fact they don't much happen in America, at least publicly, hangs by a thread. Vigilante squads would make China seem tame.
Don't kid yourself. It could happen here. If you believe it can't get worse, you are living in delusions past. Congress has always been filled with old white men who were and are far more committed to holding office than they are to the country they see as serving them. Patriarchal hierarchies that keep people at the bottom at the bottom, are symbols that are not going to disappear without a fight.
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The name Trump and the word giving should never be used in the same sentence. It would be an oxymoron.
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Conservatives in general must hate Thanksgiving - after all, the Pilgrims were illegal immigrants who entered this country without waiting in line like they were supposed to. Oh, and they actually revered someone Pocohantas instead of use the name as a cheap insult.
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@JS
Cute - but way off.
Pilgrims didn't expect free food, free education, free health care - and there were not a miilion pilgrims a year coming over.
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It is fitting that you remember the first and greatest Republican, Abraham Lincoln while we are living through the worst, Donald Trump. Abraham Lincoln reunited the country through its darkest days, and he didn't have Fox News to help him!
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Might want to have a debate with your colleague, Charles Blow, about what Thanksgiving celebrates, that would be an interesting debate.
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In the midst of civil war, Lincoln delivered kind words to his enemies. He mourned the loss of soldiers on both sides and forgave the traitors who, like some today, would rather take up arms than accept human progress.
Trump would like to dress in Lincoln's mantle, but how incongruous would it be for a great genius to traipse around pretending to be “an idiot” and “the original gorilla,” as characterized by Army of the Potomac commander George McClellan?
As Trump claims, the GOP was founded in order to oppose the extension of human slavery into newly-minted American territories. The deity to whom they prayed on Thanksgiving was one who was not sanguine in the face of human suffering for profit.
The Thanksgiving holiday has been beatified by later generations. Similarly, Lincoln was treated far more roughly by his peers than we care to imagine. Consider that the man who signed the Emancipation Proclamation freeing (at first merely legally) over 3 million people was roasted after his death by the son of the great abolitionist, William Lloyd Garrison, who called the murder “providential."
In the 1950's, after the Supreme Court ruled that black children really did deserve to be educated, the Democratic Party, which had last split in 1860 between Stephen Douglas and John C. Breckenridge, split once again, with the northern Dems standing for progressive change and the southern Dems becoming Republicans.
As Lincoln contemporary Casey Stengel said, "You could look it up."
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Americans think they invented everything! Canadians are long past their desert before Americans figure out how they’ll cook the bird. Happy (Late) Thanksgiving everybody!
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Native Americans learned their lessons the hard way. Letting immigration get out of control led to their demise.
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For the majority of Americans it's the day before black Friday no spiritual considerations what so ever.
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Yes. Yes. Yes. Our better angels. So sick of that! We killed how many million Africans? How many million Native Americans. Koreans. Vietnamese. Central Americans! Oh! But we love our mothers. So all good! This is the psychological pathology that will kill us all. Urgent action is need, not this misty-eyed fairy tale. We cannot save the world until we redeem ourselves from our murderous past.
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Great essay Paul and a perfect accompanying photo. Why wouldn't a turkey hate Thanksgiving?
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Wow- fantastic essay! Makes me happy to have people such a PK voicing our opposition. Krugman nails it once again.
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Thank you.
As bad as it is, it is not the civil war, or even Vietnam.
Each election will turn things around (not back) towards a better future. Would never want to relive 2016.
"After all, the Pilgrims were refugees fleeing persecution by the English monarchy, which at the time was still an autocratic regime. They were, in other words, exactly the kind of people Trump and company want to keep out."
Uh, NO. The people Trump wants to keep out are first. outright murderous CRIMINALS (i.e. drug gangs) and, second, people fleeing, not persecution, but failed left wing dictatorships. In the 1600s the British system was a capitalist system in the middle of a great expansion of prosperity. My ancestors came then (to Jamestown) simply to extend that system to an underpopulated (and it WAS underpopulated) new world.
They succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. The Democrats are trying hard to destroy that.
Fox News has a much better piece, telling the truth about New England, rather than the leftists (wrong) revisionist scenario.
This is not central to the theme of this essay, but it is not true that the Pilgrims fled England to seek religious freedom. They left the Netherlands, an oasis of relative religious liberty, to establish a theocracy in America.
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While there is plenty to debate about the first Thanksgiving celebrated by the Pilgrims, regarding the issue of colonialism and ensuing cruelty to the native Americans, the idea of giving thanks was and is still a key part of the national holiday.
The kneejerk impulse of Donald Trump and his advisers to level the false accusation against Democrats and liberals that we are supposedly trying to destroy Thanksgiving tells us much about Trump’s ebbing popularity and his desperate effort to stem the tide.
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President Trump has not promoted racism & hatred as Prof Krugman asserts. Moreover, his Thanksgiving Day trip to Afghanistan is something his predecessor never did. I do not believe President Trump was spooning-out food only to white troops in the mess hall.
As often happens, Prof Krugman also gets his facts wrong again. Thanksgiving is not a uniquely American holiday or tradition. Japan has celebrated a combination "Labor Thanksgiving Day" as a means of giving thanks for the first rice harvest - its origins date back roughly 2,000 years. Germany & Canada also celebrate the fall harvest.
Reality eludes Prof Krugman in this editorial. Yes, it provides ample fodder for anti-Trump antagonists. However, it falls well short of responsible opinion supported by facts & history. President Trump indeed celebrated our better angels yesterday, by spending time with the true patriots who defend Prof Krugman's right to publish such opinions.
5
“After all, the Pilgrims were refugees fleeing persecution by the English monarchy, which at the time was still an autocratic regime. They were, in other words, exactly the kind of people Trump and company want to keep out.”
With all doe respect, Dr. Krugman, President Trump cares only about keeping out brown people. So your “exactly like” falls a bit short here.
2
Mr. Krugman's premise assumes the president and his right ring followers have the ability to think logically.
5
We are all immigrants to this land...it just depends on when you got here and the route you took.
And where as some think it's the "triumph" of the white Euro's over the natives, for even more people it's the reflection on our shared and and sometimes tainted past, our current lives and our hopes for a better future for all of us.
We're not celebrating the shameful things we did...we're atoning for our sins and asking for a chance for a better tomorrow for all of us.
And yes, we are thanking god/the universe/whomever/whatever for the family and friends we are blessed with. And for most of us being thankful that we live where we live and have what we have, knowing that until we are all free, none of us is free.
3
"After all, the Pilgrims were refugees fleeing persecution by the English monarchy, which at the time was still an autocratic regime. " Er, no. They were religious fundamentalist anticatholic puritans who eschewed any concern with religious freedoms. In effect, they were like the Taliban of today, the most conservative part of a conservative society.
This is just a hoary old retelling of a foundation myth. But it doesn't make it any more true. Strange though that these same people became those who burnt 'witches'. Just like the most extreme of the Taliban towards women, or music, or laughter. This particular story line doesn't garner the same degree of support, however. It doesn't work with the myth.
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Drew Angerer / Getty Images, the photograph is priceless. You made my day!
2
I am thankful for Dr. Krugman’s article! It is impossible, no, undesirable to keep up with Trump’s hourly lies and attempts to turn everything into some kind of fake “war.” Trump never fails to project about the very thing he offends. The tradition of Thanksgiving to give and care about others. Trump only cares about himself.
4
Oh, how I wish the lament of so many writers in the Times about the scourge that has become our "president" could contain a request of pardon from their readers for their lack of criticism of the two Democratic presidents, Clinton and Obama, who abandoned the liberal agenda of their party and allowed wages to fall while the wealthy reveled in an increase of income of 250%.
Mr. Krugman did, not often enough, but most did not, so here we are, a Thanksgiving spent that could possibly be our last happy one.
1
Why always talk about "american"values?Are they exclusively "american"?
The values you are boasting of are universal values.
We, the Dutch,have(and longer as you !) the same values and we are also proud of them,although we also didn't always live according to them.
An open society doesn't claim to be the only example for mankind on earth.
5
The notion that Puritans came to America because they were persecuted in England is contradicted by G. Trevelyan, in his book, "English Social History," published in 1942. In it, he describes how the English were tolerant compared to most of Europe at that time, but that the Puritans wanted to make their fellow Englishman "eat religion with their bread." That's why the English booted them out.
3
The Pilgrims - refugees fleeing religious persecution - were not for religious freedom for anybody but themselves. And from the earliest arrival of Europeans on America’s shores, religion has often been a cudgel, used to discriminate, suppress and even kill the foreign, the “heretic” and the “unbeliever." Including the “heathen” natives already here.
Now - on this "holiday of true patriots, celebrating the better angels of our nature" - nothing could be more "All-American" than Trump and his band of blind-faith-true-believer supporters.
Cut to the chase: The "quid pro quo" is political power - and money - in exchange for advancing the reactionary anti-scientific, anti-intellectual, anti-cultural, culture war.
4
Love the picture - Happy Thanksgiving!
1
If you ask me, I think the reality is Thanksgiving hates Trump for tearing the nation apart like the 1860's Lincoln party did, so perhaps the diners had a good discussion today that reinforced their will to excommunicate the man from the nation's highest office. And I'll add, he made a veiled threat yesterday by implying military force.
Dr. Krugman. I usually enjoy reading your column, but one made me wince. Your comments about the Pilgrims and the Native Americans are based on a myth. Take off your rose-colored glasses and read The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee by David Treuer.
In our many travels throughout the United States showing our children the vastness and complexity of our country one excursion was taking them to Wounded Knee and the Pine Rodge Reservation and discussing the events of the battle and the society of the current residents of the reservation.
1
Kudos to the photographer, right? That’s a superb and classic image.
2
The Wampanoag had, according to my research, two feats: the spring-summer strawberry fest and the autumnal cranberry fest, which would coincide with our national holiday. To be truthful, I need help in exploring this link.
If we can find more proof about this, then we can: 1) found Thanksgiving on a joyful holiday as an on- going tradition reaching back to our Native American brothers and sisters, and 2) rid us of the white supremicist picture of the paternalistic Pilgrims catering to some half civilized childlike heathens.
Thanksgiving would then become a universal humankind type of celebration unique to North American but as a sign of equality amongst our many tribes.
1
“But while an alarming number of Americans seem O.K. with this authoritarian program and embrace of intolerance, the rest of the nation seems reassuringly committed to an open society.”
Why is this?
Ever since the New Deal there has been a drum beat of opposition. Louis Powell lit the match. Liberals and Democrats are socialists, or worse, communists. If nothing is done, these enemies will raise your taxes. Take your comfortable lifestyle. Raise the deficit. And give your money to the undeserving. The takers. The people who contribute nothing. The people we could do without.
Experience has not justified this view. But hate and fear are strong motivators.
In bridge, there is something called a “lay down hand”, possibly apocryphal, but a hand supposedly so strong there is no need to play it out.
The evidence of Trump’s venality, amorality, corruption, dishonesty, disloyalty, and threat to the national security is a lay down hand. But Republicans will insist on playing it out and claim that the ace of spades is the two of clubs. When that become untenable and they are left holding no tricks, they will remind you that the deck of cards is theirs, you are guests in their home, they provided the refreshments, and maybe it is time you you to go home.
Such is the power of hatred and fear. Liberals and Democrats pose no threat to republicans. But republicans would rather bring the country to its knees than leave the cult.
The media over-complicates. It is really that simple.
2
Mr. Trump never appeals to the positive hopes and dreams in people but to their fear, loathing, and selfishness. He has great reluctance to offer sympathy at times of great loss be it due to nature or man. He simply does not offer joy and thanks for anything. Who knows why?
4
As usual, Professor there is nothing to add to the extremely thoughtful and informative things written here. Okay...I can ad that you make me very impatient with Trump People. PBS' Mark Shields, I am upset with, because he talks about how wrong it is to point out the racism infecting the Trump base. Well, it is certainly according to him, insulting to honestly tell them to their faces. A final thing: this is certainly the season of what you rightly call media both-sidism. A bunch of warm and fuzzy news piece fill the airwaves talking about desperately poor people in America, once a year, only during the holiday season, telling not-poor America how all the ills of the poor are supposed to be magically fixed by private donations. Guess they have to be neutral when it comes to the super-rich sharing their wealth through progressive taxation.
While I think liberals are right to describe Trump’s base as racist (at least to some degree), I don’t see how this name-calling tactic is in any way useful politically or socially, and it certainly does nothing to educate Trumpists toward better attitudes.
May "the better angels of America’s nature" be heard from in 2020. There is indeed a core of decent and caring Americans who can and will stand up to our Failure-in-Chief and his failed Republican cohorts.
2
Sounds like Paul Krugman has been reading Steven Pinker. Positive thought and the better angels of our nature. That’s all great but there is no magic formula to surviving Trump.
2
The "…English monarchy, which at the time was still an autocratic regime … exactly the kind of people Trump and company want to..." bring it back.
1
And trump claims that progressives don't want people to say Happy Thanksgiving. I am not making this up - he said this at his last rally. Someone commented on this saying yes - we liberals have a new name for Thanksgiving, It is "“The holiday with turkey and stuffing that occurred just before the impeachment of the 45th President of the United States.”
3
I am thankful for the photographer who created the accompanying image of two turkeys. Perfect.
3
But here's the thing, Mr. K. The Thanksgiving myth is just that - another myth we tell ourselves in order to claim how just and equal a nation we are. We aren't. That should be clear by now given that 40% or so of us love the racist liar and thief in the WH. It's better we forget the myth and focus instead on today and the things you rightfully set out - that Thanksgiving is not a religious holiday, but is a holiday to give thanks to those around you who love you, to thank God if you believe it in him (but it's not mandatory), to thank the sky for being blue. It's just a day to be grateful - and then skip the nutty Christmas commercialism and the "sales" on the day after. Did we used to say Christmas was too commercial? When have you heard that lately? Nope, me neither, but I believe it more than ever.
I give thanks for the real Thanksgiving of spending a day thanking others (not the myth), and then the next day (today) and the days after that I don't go shopping. A stress free, happy and thankful season for me.
3
To call the continent-wide genocide of native peoples that occurred in North America "inevitable" is deeply offensive, and very disappointing from Krugman. See Charles Blow's column just in the last few days about the fiction of the great lovefest of the "original Thanksgiving". Besides, these fundamentalist zealots probably had more in common with Pence and the far-right, than with Emma Lazarus.
2
The sad fate of native peoples in the Americas was pretty clearly inevitable. Facing this historical truth, or any other truth, should never be considered offensive, since your feelings about it long after the fact are irrelevant. Instead it should help you support better things in the future.
1
"Never appeal to a man's better nature; he may not have one." - Lazarus Long.
1
Trump’s dismantling of core democratic values has been accomplished with the full power of the Republican Party and Fox News guiding him. Remember Mitt Romney said he likes Trump’s policies. White Christian nationalism is what underpinned Reagan and the Bushes. Trump did not overtake the Party. He is the fulfillment of the Party. Corruption and criminality beget corruption and criminality.
4
Very well said. I wasn't sure if Trump was going to name the turkey "Adam Pelosi" and not pardon it, but we got through that in one piece, no pun intended.
1
Assuming he does any celebrating at all, it certainly shoudn't be in the spirit of Thanksgiving, but instead King James Day. King James, son of Mary Queen of Scotland, thought of the natives who occupied North America prior to the arrival of the Europeans, the exact same way Trump thinks of anyone not named Donald Trump - obstacles to be crushed, ridiculed and/or vanquished for personal gain.
1
Thank You very much Mr Paul Krugmann for writing this! I just wish many Trump supporters would have time to read this piece of information before eating turkey!
1
There are 365 days in a year on which to be thankful. Honestly, the stress of forced thankfulness can be a little rough, but traditions are important. I don't care how Trump celebrates Thanksgiving or how he feels about it. He's a speck of a man who craves adulation over all else. I'll be thankful when he's out of office and out of our daily lives. His influence of greed, selfishness, and lying will, sadly, linger long after he's gone.
4
My wife, daughter and I went to Chinatown to celebrate Thanksgiving. The restaurant was packed with local Chinese, whites, Hispanics and blacks. It was a cultural melting pot, and linked to one thing in common: enjoying Thanksgiving dinner with friends and family. How much more American can that be?
2
Thanks for this Mr Krugman. I am heartbroken that Mr Trump and his supporting media, have decided to make Thanksgiving yet another part of their divide America mania.
I love celebrating Thanksgiving with my family and friends and having the pace of life slow for a long weekend while we indeed give thanks for what we have. There is also no problem, and in fact it is healthy, to remember our history in all its painful reality.
We can't change that history, but we can be open about it and recognize that it played a role in the bounty we have.
There is no war on Thanksgiving, that is absurd. Giving thanks for what we have and recognizing the reality of history together, is not a war, but a path to evolving to a higher moral standard, that America can be for the world. That ability to grow is what makes us different and that is what Mr Trump and his unfortunate enablers are working hard to destroy.
6
I often wonder if Mr Krugman reads the NYT. He says that Trump's complaint that liberals are waging war of Thanksgiving is based on nothing. Other articles this year in the Times could give someone pause before that opinion. There is Mr. Blow's, "The Horrible History of Thanksgiving". Another is David J. Silverman's, "The Vicious Reality Behind the Thanksgiving Myth". Mr Krugman says that Lincoln's proclamation was vague about The Almighty. But it was a proclamation not a sermon. If Mr. Krugman wanted understands Lincolns faith, he could get a copy of "Abraham Lincoln's Daily Treasure." He throws in a few lines of anti-Trumpism and then goes on to write about Jim Crow and other parts of our country's history. For most who sit down for Thanksgiving, it is not a history lesson but a time for families to come together and be thankful for the gifts we have. On the other hand there are a lot of people who, on Thursday, had nothing to be thankful for. I'm reminded of the photo of a Biafran woman who who had twins but only milk for one. She had to decide which baby died. Or another of a thin girl squatting down and a vulture nearby watching. I don't have to relive the history from the Pilgrims to now. One look at what is going on in the world now reminds me what I have to be thankful for.
5
@Ron I posted a response to a NYT Pick that almost perfectly mirrors your comment. Still waiting for its approval.
1
Trying to point out the truth about what you dismiss as a mere “history lesson” is not an attack on Thanksgiving but really a support for a clear-eyed appreciation about how far we have come and what we hope we will preserve and make better for our posterity.
1
As an old immigrant who has spent more of his life abroad than in my new home, I thanked the bejapers out of everything yesterday. And I'm thankful that the darker days I see coming upon America will probably not hit before I move on. But the darkness we are in is not lifting. PK writes: " But we’ve always managed to emerge from the darkness." We've never before been this populous. We've never seen the specter of global warming so starkly on our fringes. We've never seen such a flood of climate and war refugees, a flood that has shaken Europe, and has fueled white supremacists in America together with their grim leader. Something will survive, but not the Republic framed by the Founders. Small groups will rule, and other small groups will wait patiently to begin the democratic experiment again. But Americans will also face foreign foes and masters. I mean, what standing can we have in a world where the POTUS thinks it a plus to restart negotiations with dusty tribal leaders we've failed to defeat in our longest war? Where we might have pointed proudly to honor and public spirit, what do we now have? On Black Friday?
2
Thanks, Paul, for your reminder of the best of what defines us as Americans, and our ability to sustain it. Hope you and your family enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving!
4
I agree with those who feel the family gathering and food generosity values of Thanksgiving are undercut by having mall and restaurant workers having to work on the holiday. But they work and because it is the beginning of a month- long shopping orgy leading up to Christmas, which commemorates the birth of a messiah whose message was to Love God and thy neighbor as thyself. How many of those discounted TV sets or year-end new car deals were to be gifted to a neighbor?
4
The Christmas kickoff now precedes Thanksgiving and the point is to consume: eat eat eat and spend spend spend. There may also be a certain amount of drinking to fuel the splurge.
7
"But we still celebrate the tale of a benign meeting of races and cultures." Hmm. From what I've read of history that initial meeting wasn't really all that benign. While not denying the autocratic nature of the British monarchy or that they were persecuted for their beliefs, I might add that the Pilgrims'(or more accurately the Puritans) beliefs were persecutorial in their own right eventually leading to the Salem witch trials.
5
@K. Norris. Not that it lets anyone off the hook, but it’s helpful to remember that the Pilgrims, who arrived in southeastern Massachusetts in 1620, and the Puritans, who filtered in around Boston sometime later, were different branches of English Christians with slightly different outlooks. The Thanksgiving narrative does center on the Pilgrims.
2
I long ago realized that I did not arrange my own conception to a committed couple of white working class parents in a South Carolina cotton mill village. I did not cut my own umbilical cord, open my own jars of baby food, or come out of the womb speaking English. Yet I was granted, by Constitutional fiat, the priceless gift of birthright citizenship in the United States of America.
I didn't hire or pay my teachers and coaches, who instilled a love of learning and physical activity. I didn't arrange for my Mom to work in the county courthouse, giving her access to local politicians who used their influence to lobby for me to get a nomination to Annapolis from the late Sen. Fritz Hollings.
And I didn't set up the labs and classrooms on the banks of the Severn, opening me to a world that I could only imagine from that little mill village.
Call it fate, call it random chance, call it the will of some deity. And this professing Christian, channeling Anne Lamott, doesn't know. In my faith, I have more doubt that certainty.
But whatever one calls it, for me all of these opportunities, including the opportunity to live and breathe each morning, is a priceless gift, for which I can only be grateful.
23
Thanks giving is in the air; necessarily, you take the opportunity to reflect on the past, the history, and acknowledge what you are thankful for. Dr. Krugman too focuses on (his understanding of) history to articulate a viewpoint that is currently unfashionable - only because the megaphone (bully pulpit) belongs to strongmen with a starkly different articulation of the historical narrative. True here; true all over the world. Philippines; Britain; Hungary; Turkey; China; DPR Korea;. India, to name only a few.
Unfortunately, hope is not a winning strategy - and being hopeful based on an unfashionable narrative is useless. How about focusing on tomorrow and coming up with ideas for action needed to snatch the megaphone back from the MAGA crowd?
6
Not everyone celebrates Thanksgiving. Those who adhere to strict religious practice (Fundamentalists, Orthodox sects) may not believe in a secular thanksgiving, only in practice of religious holidays. They are good people, but are often non Christian. These small groups are easily recognizable. Are Trump's comments another "dog whistle" to his ultra right supporters?
3
This column does one of the good things we can do in this dark era — draw comparisons, learn from the wrong-doing, and promote the good. We got to this place because people like me took too much for granted and didn’t realize we need to constantly reinforce the ideals of equality, human rights and balanced government.
5
War: any First Amendment protected critique of traditional social conventions.
Deep state: all governmental rules and norms that prevent corruption.
Tragically, for decades our legal system was negligent in not throwing Trump in the pokey decades ago, when he was first accused of discrimination and scamming Americans.
5
Thank you for this excellent, and accurate, truthful article.
23
There may be nothing about Thanksgiving that reserves it, as you have said, for believers in any particular religion or even any formal religion. Why not acknowledge that even atheists, agnostics, Buddhists, etc. can value gratitude?
19
I've always enjoyed our American version of Thanksgiving. It's a wonderful idea - but we didn't invent the harvest feast, many cultures have been doing for millennia, each in their own way.
16
Living near the Canadian border, I feel I must point out that Canadians celebrate "Thanksgiving" in October.
It is likely that early French settlers also celebrated a day in October probably like the European harvest festivals.
Thanksgiving in parts of Canada has probably been celebrated since about 1800.
In any case, Happy American Thanksgiving in the spirit of Lincoln.
30
Nice piece of writing from Prof Krugman. Thanksgiving brings our first generation immigrant family and friends to celebrate this better angels spirit of America, and express gratitude to all Americans, those who lived in the past and are now living at present.
7
We should finally do better for Native Americans ( who by the way supposedly prefer "Indians") and strongly affirm the welcoming of refugees and those wanting to better themselves.
2
I agree with your beautifully expressed sentiment but have to point out an error: "Not only is it unique to our country..."
Your neighbours in Canada celebrate it as well -- on a different day. From Wikipedia, "After the Seven Years' War ended in 1763, with New France handed over to the British, the citizens of Halifax held a special day of Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving days were observed beginning in 1799 but did not occur every year.[19]
During and after the American Revolution, American refugees who remained loyal to Great Britain moved from the newly independent United States to Canada. They brought the customs and practices of the American Thanksgiving to Canada, such as the turkey, pumpkin, and squash.
Lower Canada and Upper Canada observed Thanksgiving on different dates; for example, in 1816 both celebrated Thanksgiving for the termination of the War of 1812 between France, the U.S. and Great Britain, with Lower Canada marking the day on May 21 and Upper Canada on June 18 (Waterloo Day).
In 1838, Lower Canada used Thanksgiving to celebrate the end of the Lower Canada Rebellion. Following the rebellions, the two Canadas were merged into a united Province of Canada, which observed Thanksgiving six times from 1850 to 1865. During this period, Thanksgiving was a solemn, mid-week celebration."
2
Thanksgiving, like so many other American national holidays, is losing ground to the drug of consumerism, whose reach is getting more and more expansive. Black Friday, Cyber Monday. What's next, Black November, Cyber December?
Thanksgiving and Christmas have transformed into spasms of consumption and continue to trend that way, just like the strip malls and suburbs snaking out along our major roads.
Reclaim Thanksgiving and Christmas as service holidays in order to promote what David Brooks calls "thick relationships."
Would it be that difficult for government and private citizens' groups to reclaim the spirit of giving on these holidays?
Europeans' so-called gift to North American Indians is influenza, small pox, tuberculosis, and genocidal dispossession of lands, a legacy that is palapable today.
The majority of Americans can enjoy a decent meal on any given day of the year. Time to make amends, to truly give thanks, rather than ponder the next iPhone upgrade.
Thanks Paul. You are an exceptional columnist.
11
Paul Krugman is a celebrated economist who won the Nobel Prize (actually the equivalent of such for there is no Nobel prize in economics). So it is quite a task to disagree with him. Yet here we have a clear example of a Trump derangement syndrome: Thanksgiving is not a celebration of good values at all and American racism is not a foreign tradition. Krugman here paints a rosy picture of US history that many US historians do not share. That Trump is a vile authoritarian is not in dispute but disagreeing with the conman systematically leads to strange statements.
Here is a text found on Truthout: (Thanksgiving is a colonial holiday meant to erase the ruthlessness of English settlers. In a way, Thanksgiving is the perfect American holiday: It is based on the erasure of Indigenous peoples, promotes a false vision of peaceful cooperation between nations, and has now become an excuse to indulge in the spectacles of hyper-consumption and football.)
It is rather unfortunate that Krugman praises Thanksgiving as quintessentially American. And Europeans and Americans were in the same racist boat in the past. Krugman is rewriting history to make Americans kinder and gentler than they were.
3
I spent Thanksgiving with my ex-husband's family. He and I share a daughter, an only child whom we all adore, and although his and my marriage ended decades ago, his family has always included me. I would have been alone, since my own surviving family is fragmented and widely scattered.
Our history goes back more than fifty years; I can remember when I was a very young wife in this family, Thanksgiving could descend into a whole lot of drinking, fiery arguments and walkouts, the whole nine yards. Now that we are growing old, that behavior --- and the drinking, thankfully --- has receded into the past.
Somehow an abiding affection has managed to survive, and people have gained a sense of proportion, humor and gratitude. We are all a part of each other's lives and the good memories have prevailed over the nasty ones. It was great to see this resilience of the human spirit.
37
not many who can see the forest through the trees. cheers to you for doing so.
8
The Pilgrims fled religious persecution in England to Holland. There was religious tolerance in Holland. They left Holland for the U.S. for various reason including difficulty making a living, wanting to do missionary work in a distant land, and the hope of attracting more people into their community.
So I disagree with Mr. Krugman. The Pilgrims were European WASPs. Exactly the type of immigrants Trump favors.
5
And in 20 years the Puritans would take over England, kill the King and become more autocratic than Charles and James ever were. And in settling here the Pilgrims had no tolerance for anyone who disagreed with them.
1
Paul,
I have only one slight issue with this piece and that is with the depiction of the Pilgrims as fleeing an autocratic Monarch.
This is true, but it misses an important element, namely that their persecution was popular.
We may associate it with an all powerful leader who controlled both Parliament, Courts and the established Church, but it was also popular with the population.
It’s in this context that we should see both the insistence by the founding fathers of the separation of powers and indeed things like Europe’s ECHR designed to protect the rights of citizens against their own Government even when it is democratically elected and it’s actions popular as safeguards to be cherished and defended.
Perhaps Thanksgiving is a time to remember what can happen when power falls into the hands of someone who would bring church and state, politicians, party and courts under their direct control.
From this side of the Atlantic, I wish you luck!
Peter.
11
I'm no fan of Trump but the celebration of Thanksgiving and all that it implies is very subjective.
3
I am quite sure trump has twisted the real meaning of Thanksgiving into a national day of thanks that we were given trump by divine intervention.
If there is a God, he will be calling on Bread and Butter to pardon him.
8
Well, my family had a great Thanksgiving. And we gave thanks! And did not rename any holiday.
You cannot believe the cranberry sauce my sister made. Rock your socks.
4
I hope Americans truly enjoyed thanksgiving the way it ought to be, with family and friends. With thanks, giving, and without family fights about politics.
I've read a nr of articles that provide advice on how to get through Thanksgiving if family members are on opposite sides of the political spectrum. Most of them seem to provide rational solutions that will likely have failed (don't talk about it, point out "obvious" pro's and cons, etc).
What binds us is our love and fears in life. If you want to have a meaningful conversation then talk about that. And more importantly, listen to each other. Truly try to understand each other. I'm guessing we all will be surprised at how much we can agree upon.
That's what family and friends are for and these conversations will bring us closer together in a time where politicians only seem to sell us division and hate.
3
@Dutchie
So true. Thank you.
As much as I enjoy reading PK every week in the Times, I can't help but wonder if its constructive to reiterate time and again that Trump supporters don't believe in American values.
The reason is that no matter what anyone says about Trump's supporters, THEY believe that they *are* supporting American values.
And in fact, there are probably quite of few of them reading op/eds like this one as we speak, and preparing to come right back with the rejoinder that "Its LIBERALS who support American values".
Does emphasizing this deep divide in our society actually accomplish anything besides reinforcing and increasing that divide?
And I don't say that because I know a better way to approach Trump supporters. I don't. But what CAN we talk about that can minimize the divide in our society? How else CAN we approach them?
7
@Bryan
If we can only abandon our preconceptions of the other side that are given to us by our politicians and media. For many here, every view they have of Trump supporters and every interpretation of world events have been presented to them by mainstream media. But it's just not accurate. We are closer than they would have us believe. Their business is to generate interest any which way.
4
I live abroad and have for many years. Of all the holidays I miss the most, it's Thanksgiving. It's the most American holiday, and it's the most the most inclusive. I don't mind recalling the sins of America, but I'm glad there is an America, and I give thanks for it.
10
When people come to this country, no matter from where, Thanksgiving Day is a holiday with meaning for them, the first which they can embrace wholeheartedly. It became a holiday at a turning point in the worst time in our country’s history. While the contact of people and organisms from Eurasia and Africa shattered the ecology of the Americas, it was not an evil invasion but people doing what they had since the first walked out of the Great Rift Valley of East Africa where the species evolved. The holiday is a good thing, regardless of the stories related to it that refer to events of benefit to some and detrimental to others.
2
I'll share a tidbit here; Thanksgiving was notable for the fact that the Trump White House did not make any big news reported announcements Wednesday to control the Diners narrative and discussions at a rare annual gathering of families. It was conspicuously absent after two years of "messaging" to manipulate. But on Thanksgiving, it was announced that Trump made an unannounced trip to Afghanistan to be with the troops and he announced a restart of peace negotiations.
Now I'm in a Trump friendly place that's pretty dangerous to me and I want you to know that for perhaps the third time he left the country, I was heavily abused by his henchmen.
As I'm in the belly of the Beast with my ear to the rail, I can report the rumblings are stronger all summer and until now and I anticipated social discord. It appears Trump's efforts to make peace with other nations while he instigates trouble here and is challenged by a pretty solid case for impeachment, he may be hinting about those troops returning here. And you can guess the rest.
Stay on top of the weekend news cycle manipulations for what he is up to as he seeks to confuse and divert everyone just before weekends, but eerily lays low and quiet on weekends. I know you rely on fodder for reporting, but it's deeper than that.
2
I’ve generally found that it’s tempting but unwise to fantasize that I can look down on my fellow Americans as they munch their “fodder.”
Paul Krugman and some commentators find it necessary to locate the meanest features of Trump’s character in Europe. I suppose his qualities - if existing - are American. If there was not an ocean between us I woulkd like a direct conversation with you, but, happy Thanksgiving anyhow!
3
A minor quibble, and certainly not a new one, but perhaps it needs repeating: the Pilgrims were not, at least primarily, "refugees fleeing persecution by the English monarchy". They were religious zealots, refusing freedom of speech, thought and worship to anyone who didn't blindly follow their own doctrines. Our cult of ancestor worship (which, incidentally, also includes the "Founding Fathers") sometimes makes us blind to many of our own faults.
By the way: it was the Pilgrims who waged the first "War on Christmas".
None of which, I hasten to say, prevents me from enjoying a good stuffed turkey, followed by pumpkin pie etc. Some traditions are worth preserving.
31
@Ellen Valle indeed, the Pilgrim's having first found refuge in tolerant Netherlands, then left the Netherlands for America because the Netherlands were too tolerant (aka liberal) !
1
As far as I could tell, even though people around the turkey had different views on some things, we spent the whole day talking about how to build better communities together and never once mentioned DJT. It was great.
8
Trump never came up in my thanksgiving. It was real good.
20
This is the one holiday that usually can't fail; today it didn't. The Thanksgiving dinner can be the whole traditional feast with turkey and gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and cranberry sauce, but it can also be a whole smattering of new variations. Thanksgiving should be a celebration of what truly matters: family and friends gathered around the table to enjoy with one another's company. It was also a day of relief where Trump didn't cause another calamity; he was out of the country, not trying to get a photo with some dictator. At last, we didn't talk politics.
4
Thank you for writing this piece. Thanksgiving has evolved into a welcoming celebration of immigrant cultures who came here to break bread together and celebrate new found community and family. And my family has native blood.
Reading Mr. Blow’s opinion piece in juxtaposition to this is just terribly depressing. If we continue to find every part of our country divisive rather than empowering we will not make it as a country, and we will, again, put the true bigots and haters in office while we denigrate and alienate each other.
8
Dr. K, your thoughtful reflection on Thanksgiving and the good nature of President Lincoln mirrored the Thanksgiving dinner discussion at our family gathering which was fortunate to be honored with a visit of my schoolteacher son and his wife. Both public school teachers. Most of our discussion centered on the importance of good public schools in reaching a more perfect union and a great society, which we all agreed was the strongest instrument for achieving the social, racial, and economic goals that we aspire to as we try to appeal to the better angels of America's nature.
There have been disappointments in the history of society but we find hope in our children and my son's observations of the on the 6th grade classes that he has taught.
His school and class are probably the most diverse student body in the nation. He loves his work and his students love him. He is the only white teacher in the school and has been teaching long enough, he is about your age, to observe the success of his students.
My wife and I are both proud and as we listened to him relate stories of his classes, my wife and I had to both fight to hold back the tears of the goodness that we sense in his achievements.
As one of the great social economists of our time i add one note to your knowledge base that the number of people in the world who are in poverty is in decline and most studies have found that the principal contributor is immigration.
Best wishes for a happy Thanksgiving.
22
@james jordan
correction:
but we find hope in our children and my son's observations on the 6th grade classes that he has taught.
Thank you so much for writing this! I love Thanksgiving so much. Food and family. Getting out the fancy dishes. Remembering our ancestors who left us those dishes. Glad to see there's at least one person on the opinion page who sees this holiday the way I do.
It's not a celebration of genocide. It's a celebration of the one shining moment of tolerance and togetherness that we had. Tomorrow, fittingly, is Black Friday, which really is a celebration of the kind of rapacious economics that killed off that friendship. I won't be participating in it.
637
@Iris Neither will I. I never have and never will. And I think any shopping on Thanksgiving is almost heretical.
26
@Iris
We always loved the way thanksgiving was mainly focused on friends, family and food. It is sad that what you decry as “rapacious economics” has been gradually creeping into this special day. The shopping frenzy of Black Friday and Cyber Monday begin even before Thanksgiving and increasingly affect the day itself, with more and more stores staying open, or encouraging people to curtail the day and get a jump on the specials. Soon we might as well rename it Thanksbuying Day.
27
@Iris Everyone should read C Blow’s column for a different view.
8
I see so many things about what Thanksgiving celebrates. It's so irrelevant. That's like saying July celebrates the conquest and massacre of Gaul. Leave aside the blood of history that courses through language itself, so that our thoughts of peace rest on the predicate of some former unthinkable violence.
Thanksgiving is a time I celebrate and am grateful for family and friends. I don't see what is so difficult about that. The one thing that gets me really upset is seeing hardworking people forced into their mall jobs on Thanksgiving rather than being given a well deserved break. It's really not too much to ask.
370
@margaret_h . . .I think Thanksgiving should be declared a day of rest and Thanks for everyone but essential services, hospitals and police, like that. Close all the stores like gas stations and small shops before noon, everyone go home and eat and be together and just rest. I also feel this is a good plan for Labor Day, when we are supposed to be celebrating the part Labor organizers have played in the end of child labor, better pay and working conditions.
29
Your last paragraph—touché!
11
@margaret_h
Nice try.
In real life though, the French national day, July 14, is "Bastille Day". That's because on July 14, 1789, ordinary citizens stormed the most horrible prison in Paris, called the Bastille, to free the many political prisoners who were thrown in jail by a dictator, liberation which directly led to the founding of the French Republic, the end of totalitarianism and feudalism (= enslaving 90% of the people), and the declaration of human rights.
In other words, it was the most important moment in the French Revolution, happening about a century after the Plymouth event that Thanksgiving in the US celebrates.
Just like in the case of Plymouth, however, the Revolution also led to the worst atrocities, later on.
That is not what the National Day celebrates, but it is what the national day also commemorates, because being grateful for the good things that happened doesn't exclude remembering how bad things happened too - quite on the contrary, the good things become all the more valuable once you put them into context.
4
Hi Paul, Trump despite all his personal issues will likely be re-elected on peace and prosperity, what other Republican or Democratic President has not started a war? There are a few exceptions but Trump will get some credit and the economy is not all that bad, employment at highs and yes there is income disparity like every country, the big concern is climate crisis but everyone including Canada has missed the Paris accord.
3
Unemployment is quite bad. I wish Mr. Krugman would write a column about it. When one includes the many who have stopped looking for work, because, after years, there has been none to find, the real figure about doubles. One must also consider that many who are, per se, employed, receive wages so low as to not make a living.
10
@Craig What war did Barack Obama start? Bill Clinton? Jimmy Carter?
Maybe next year this time Trump will be a lame duck after being defeated for a second term. Then we can put the ‘thanks’ back in Thanksgiving.
14
Humans have always told simplified stories to make sense of things, to reinforce a belief system. The story of the first American Thanksgiving is as much a myth as the story of Noah’s Ark.
I will spare the bore of blathering on and on about the Restoration-era Protestant fasting rituals, because that’s just what it is — a bore. And anybody who cares can just google it, right? Most people won’t because we live in the kind of world now where people just believe whatever they want. Truth is relative now. Truth in most cases is whatever makes people feel good. Secure. Happy.
It’s so much more pleasant to tell the story as we know it, to dress little kids up in brown paper bag costumes and sing songs about Pilgrims and Indians, just like it’s more pleasant to dress kids up in animal costumes in church and teach them a song about “elephants and kangaroosies roosies” walking onto an ark by “twosies twosies.” And it reinforces a belief system that sustained people for hundreds of years, one that aims to keep people bound together so that the whole world doesn’t fall apart.
Well. Those old simplified stories cannot survive the Age of Information unless people just decide to live with their heads totally in the sand. If we aim to move forward, it’s time to start telling new stories. It’s time to stop simplifying things. It’s time to grow up and face reality. As with Noah’s Ark, we’ve reached a point where telling the simplified Thanksgiving story does more harm than good.
11
I hate to throw this into the mix on a national holiday, but just between you and me — sometimes I suspect Trump’s not nearly as smart as he says he is.
(Not even close!)
7
@Tom W
Ya think? What gave it away?
2
Dr. Krugman writes that the Pilgrims "exactly the kind of people Trump and his band of bigots want to keep out ."
I don't think we should compare the Pilgrims to the Hispanics or Muslims or Africans--groups Trump genuinely dislikes and does not want to increase their presence in America. The Pilgrims were Europeans practicing a form of Christianity. Trump would welcome such entries. But those whose skin color is swarthy or darker , those who race is not clearly Caucasian, there Trump is not welcoming.
3
As a factual matter, the Pilgrims were political opponents of the king in the civil war, and he exiled them to the awful land of New England. The essence of America was the settlement of Jamestown 13 years before Plymouth. The production of tobacco, increasingly with slaves on the fertile land to the South, that the king could impose tariffs on as he resold it to Europe. So much for religious freedom for the Anglicans who were given the fertile land
Of course, Trump is a hated German-American who Krugman cannot stand because he wants to bring peace to the Middle East in conjunction with the hated Russians.
2
@Jerry Hough: You forgot to mention how Trump's buddies in Turkey and Saudi Arabia are also contributing to "bring peace to the Middle East."
Meanwhile, Trump's other idol, indicted felon Netanyahu, is annexing stolen ground and increasing Israeli settlements there, with the blessing of your favorite president. All in the name of peace in the Middle East, right?
I am stunned that you failed to boast about these encouraging developments.
Fascinating that you think he gives any importance at all to the middle east. He has no higher regard for Israel than for Ukraine - they both are a nuisance to him.
It is also fascinating that you think the now impossible-to-avoid one-state solution will mean peace. Arab- Israelis are going to demand full citizenship. In a couple decades they will outnumber jews. Then what?
He tweeted out two things today. One was a photo of his head photo-shopped onto a body builder's body. The second one, when asked what he was most grateful for, he said, "Myself"
11
@crystalbay
The one time he is honest.
2
Feels a bit cheap to use the holiday to attack the character of a flawed leader. At least he did not go golfing today.
The rest of the piece about our American value celebrated by this holiday is fine, I guess not enough of a click bait without attaching Trump to it.
Happy Thanksgiving from Canada, Peace.
4
@Joel: "to attack the character..." Correction... to attack his destruction of the Republic and of the values on which it was founded. Trump is welcome to his character so long as he leaves the great American experiment in democracy alone---but he can't, can he? It's an insult to all he wishes to stand for.
1
Sorry,Joel from,Canada,this is just the right time to attack the character of a "flawed (?)" leader. Staying awake to the truth of our situation doesn't take a holiday. The "leader of the free world" tweeted out a disgustingly bizarre picture of himself looking like a wacked out hero god. It wasn't funny. It wasn't cute. On a national day of thanks, this was the best Mr. Trump could come up with? As he passed out plastic cafeteria trays of Turkey and stuffing to men and women in harm's way ( I bet he didn't stay long. How many trays does it take to make a photo op? one?) he is probably still giggling at his cleverness of sending his stupid, ridiculous picture as a tiny gift to his masses. Grow up, Mr. Trump. You are just not that funny.
I have to differ with Prof. Krugman. Yes, Trump should celebrate the Pilgrims. Didn't Charles Blow just remind us that they left the Netherlands, where they were safe from persecution, for America in order to set up an intolerant theocracy?
7
Look around your own newspaper and you'll see why Trump says theres a war on Thanksgiving by the left: your fellow Times columnist, Charles Blow, took pains to remind us of the Horrible History of Thanksgiving. Like Columbus Day, it is a day we Americans should be ashamed of (and by Americans, let it be clear that it refers to descendant of Europeans, and let it also be clear that we have no right to even use the name, since it belongs to the indigenous peoples of the northern and southern continents of this hemisphere). No, we must apologize for our very existence on this land. Let it never be forgotten that we brought syphillus, smallpox, and slavery. And despoiling of the pristine forests and bison and water. Columbus Day is reduced to, at best, an ethnic holiday for Italians, and Thanksgiving is called Turkey Day by the woke, who hasten to add that turkeys belong in fields, not on our tables. So yeah, war on Thanksgiving.
8
@PL
Just a couple of points.
1. I've heard the term Turkey Day since at least the early 1960s, and nobody was woke in those days.
2. Most of the evidence I've seen suggests it's more likely than Columbus brought syphilus from America back to Europe.
Also, I would be interested in knowing just exactly who has been trying to stop you from celebrating Thanksgiving. And how successful have they been?
4
@PL: Please try to at least get your facts straight.
What Trump actually said is that the left wants to CHANGE THE NAME of Thanksgiving.
Who, precisely, has ever said that, and what did they say they want to change the name to?
Please cite your sources.
Thank you.
1
@Chris -- Charles M. Blow and others if his ilk. And no, he has not been successful.
Trump is more concerned with Butter the turkey’s health then millions of Americans health.
4
In the Trump Presidency I have never been as ashamed to be an American. He has caused irreparable harm to this country both at home and abroad. He is eroding our moral fiber to such an extent that Evangelical Christians are openly and unambiguously supporting a man who behaves in direct opposition to every moral standard I thought they hold sacred.
Yet as an American in Trump's dark time I have never been clearer on what it means to be an American. I have woken up. I understand that our republic is a thing that needs attention and care. And I am surrounded by others: Americans of all income and educational levels, of all ages, in particular some of the most inspirational young people I have ever met, who are speaking up and speaking out. For the first time in my life I am participating in our democratic process. I am taking a stand. I will not let Mr Trump destroy this country. We are far better than him. We are better than those of us who have been seduced by his celebrity. We are better than those Republican members of Congress who, in order to get the votes of Trump's followers, have abandoned any form of decency, moral fiber and standards of governance. We are better than Fox News and their nepotistic pandering to their puppet king. I use strong language because this time needs strong language. My views must be unambiguous. And I will keep speaking up and speaking out until such time as this great danger to our democracy is gone.
1021
@Jo Trafford
Thank you Jo Trafford for saying what is on so many's minds. As an immigrant who became a dual citizen several years ago, I too have never felt so ashamed to be an American. This man who is not my president does not represent my values, has neither competence nor empathy, is turning the tables around so fast that we as a nation don't know how to respond to the innuendo of insults and lies he utters every single day. But I still have hope that we will be able to get rid of him soon. We have a lot of healing to do and we cannot allow him and his cronies to be the voice of hate and discord after he is gone. It's not just him who needs to go, he needs to take Faux News along with him. We are certainly better than him and we need to show him who we really are. I am appalled at the hypocrisy of the Republicans who say in private how much they despise this man whom they put in office but do nothing to stop him. The likes of Susan Collins who pretend he is not the problem and avoid answering the questions of their constituents about this aberration of history is maddening. When we boot him out of the White House next November we will also vote them out. I am not afraid to say that they do not deserve to represent us any longer for they have failed us.
134
@Jo Trafford I agree almost completely. I only disagree with your use of the words "strong language" to describe your feelings about Trump. My words are much stronger, but I can't include them because they would violate the NYT standards.
64
@Jo Trafford Thank you Jo Trafford! I agree with the other commenters that you have expressed exactly what we are feeling. I only hope that when (please!!) Trump is defeated, our democracy is strong enough to withstand the backlash of Trump, Fox and followers.
79
Thanksgiving now marks the last day before consumer mania takes over. It is one last chance to reflect on what we are thankful before the craziness is kicked off with Black Friday. The recklessness of consumerism is a main contributor to the destruction of this planet's natural resources on a vast scale, As a counter to Black Friday something called Buy Nothing Day was invented but it never really caught on, particularly because TV stations refused to run ads for Buy Nothing Day. And if Black Friday isn't crazy enough now there is Cyber Monday. A lot of emissions are released making and transporting all this stuff. Something to keep in mind as the frenzy begins.
167
@Bob The love of money, as we all know, is the root of all evil--and the urge to rake it in at holiday time is an almost irresistible human urge. Now that it's threatening our air, water, food sources, and the planet itself, the dangers of greed are finally being acknowledged. But I'm afraid the urge is too strong to be curbed as widely as it should be--especially in America, where money rules and profit is all that matters. Maybe we should have Thanksgiving every month, to act as a hesitation in the headlong rush to buy the next new things.
12
@Bob
And after the craziness of the shopping sprees, there is Giving Tuesday, which elevates the notion that we not only have "better angels" but that they obligate us to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, clothe the naked, and heal the sick.
And that is also what America, at its best, warts and all, stands for. Please contribute as you are able.
7
@Bob . . .oh well, gee, with my finances, I celebrate "buy nothing day," quite a lot! If I get up in the morning and can breathe and walk, there is a roof over my head and food available, if I am warm and safe and dry, well, then I can say, I already have everything I need. Life is abundant.
13
I don't know if Trump hates Thanksgiving but while most take a break to be with family, I know now, watching the news, that Thanksgiving for Trump is campaigning in Kabul.
Unbelievable, somebody who made-up a feet problem to avoid military service, who called names war hero John McCain, who does not respect military discipline or at least Navy discipline, goes to use our troops for political gain. Thanksgiving day.
If just because of being an American citizen I felt a slap on my face, I cannot even imagine what Americans in the military who can read Trump felt with it. After a great family day, I turned on the news. I will not do it on Xmas day. Or eve.
2
@Aurace Rengifo -- U.S. presidents often pay surprise visits to our troops in war zones on holidays. Most active military support the commander-in-chief (yes, Pres. Trump), fyi.
1
“Thanksgiving is, in short, a truly American holiday. Not only is it unique to our country, it’s a celebration of the values that actually make America great”
While this article is excellent, the quote above is erroneous. Canada celebrates Thanksgiving as well, but in October.
9
I agree with Paul Krugman pretty much all the time, but I couldn't help notice in this article how he talks about "what makes America great" (mainly, our values, he seems to be saying), then in the same breath he mentions that we usually pay only "lip service" to them. So how are we great? What are we great about? Are we the only great country? Why all this talk about being "great"?
5
@Ed Cone He didn't say "usually", he said "all too often". How great are we? Well our country has done some very good things but most of us are now blase about them.
Defeating, with our allies, Germany and Japan was an achievement to be sure but many nations have won big wars. We ended up being friends with both Germany and Japan. That doesn't happen very often. We didn't try to make them our subjects. We didn't convert our alliances into an empire. Also unusual in history. We even allowed these former enemies to compete economically with us and in certain sectors to beat us.
So there's some greatness for you. You seem already to know a lot about our failings so I'll save a recitation of them for replying to someone who insists that we've never done wrong. Spoiler: it ain't so.
1
Thanksgiving has nothing to do with the immigrants to the Americas, either those crossing land bridge from Eurasia or later arrivals from Europe.
That is a fraud, apparently perpetrated by textbook writers attempting one volume to sell north and south, that ignores the proclamation of the last Thursday in November as a day to give national thanks that the Union emerged from the Civil War, intact.
It even was declared a holiday by President Lincoln, an old fashioned member of the Grand Old Party, shortly before he was shot dead.
It should invoke the abolition of slavery, and the hope that one day their successors may be seen as true equal Americans by those of us not raised color-blind (Color blind? Means, as Dr. King said, people should be measured by their thoughts and deeds, not their exterior paint jobs, or, these days: their religion, ethnic background, basic gender, gender choice in terms of presentation or bed partner, all the other outgrowths of the concept that none of those factors make a person automatically "good" or "evil". My parents raised me properly, and I am very happy that the last things I care about are what people look like, what religion/if any, they hold to, as long as it includes "and leave everyone else to theirs' ") whether they are male or female biologically, or want to be called male or female biologically, and, unless interested - who they prefer as intimate friends - Wish more of us had been raised that way).
2
Thank you, Paul. This is a fine column, full of wisdom, information, realism and hope. Charles Blow's recent column depressed me because I knew there was a lot of truth in it. But there is more truth in your words. May the better angels of our nature endure.
12
Thanksgiving is not unique to America, the Canadians also celebrate (though earlier in the year). They started celebrating it earlier than we did, though it became an official holiday after ours.
It is still a great day.
17
@Bill Dan: I'm curious, though. The USA Thanksgiving is pretty definitely still tied to the story about the Pilgrims and Indians at Plymouth, although you could make a case that over the years it has gotten to be more and more of a family get-together with turkey and pumpkin pie thing, in practice. Is there a Canadian story analogous to the feast at Plymouth? Or is it more of a plain harvest festival?
2
Dual Canadian-American citizen here. The two holidays have the same name, but they are different.
Canadian Thanksgiving is celebrated at fall harvest time, in mid October. Many people eat a Turkey but others will focus on regional food, e.g., Salmon in BC.
It is a time for friends and family to gather and feast. Celebrations happen throughout the weekend. Someone with a big family or many friends might attend three feasts, Sat, Sun, and Mon.
Also, there is no particular mythology. Each year the federal government makes a proclamation dedicating the day. A few times it has been designated as thanksgiving for an armistice but it is almost always “for general thanksgiving.”
5
Thanksgiving is a communal event, celebrating togetherness, acceptance of diverse cultures, welcoming immigrants. I certainly agree with Paul, Thanksgiving is a celebration of our better angels, the essence of Thanksgiving does not seem at all compatible with the great divider in the white house, and those who blindly support him.
5
Thanksgiving is a communal event, celebrating togetherness, acceptance of diverse cultures, welcoming immigrants. I certainly agree with Paul, Thanksgiving is a celebration of our better angels, the essence of Thanksgiving does not seem at all compatible with the great divider in the white house, and those who blindly support him.
3
Jim Crow is very much still with us and the continuing generational damage caused by slavery and the aftermath is not even close to being wiped out.
I admire your good wishes and some of what you wrote and feel your frustration with Trump and agree about him. Schiff and Nancy may be nice to hang out with and chat up, but honestly they are part of the reason we have Trump . I know it is blasphemy to dare criticize the Dems who have been bought up by corporations and oligarchs but Nancy fights for corporations. not for us. She punished Nadler for insisting on impeachment and that is why we got Schiff who was just OK.
Sure the Dems will be great on social issues that don't
cost their donors anything and they will be overly polite and funny and charming, but I cannot be thankful for them and their refusal to hear us and read the polls which show we are mainly very progressive in what we want and very much need.
The bought Dems keep telling us we can't have what
what other civilized countries have. Well of course we can't while those few people at the top grab up
all the wealth by crook and pay no taxes. So those Dems who take corporate bribes do not belong at our Thanksgiving tables . They cheat the American people for their own profit.
The Dems, who refuse to take corporate money and fight for us are our better angels and understand the true meaning of Thanksgiving and belong at our tables.
5
@cheerful dramatist
I applaud your post because I share many of your feelings about the Democratic Party since the 1992 election. I also disagree with your conclusion.
It is up to us - that "we the people" thing - to let the Democratic Party know that it either goes progressive or it becomes extinct. I write the DNC all the time and let them know that to run Biden will be to invite the same defeat that happened to Hillary, and largely for the same reasons. I'm supporting Warren in the current run-up to the primaries, and will most likely vote for her or Sanders in the California primary.
My state is blue, so I won't waste my time or my money supporting CA Dems - instead, my efforts and cash will go to progressive candidates in battleground states. I'm a teacher, so I may even spend next summer in a battleground state manning phones and pounding pavements.
We the people must make the difference. If the Democratic Party won't listen, then let it die and be reborn.
8
@cheerful dramatist It's perfectly possible to take "corporate money" and still energetically promote the best interest of the American people. You don't seem to think so but you offer no evidence, particularly in the cases of Schiff and Pelosi. The views you promote here work to the interest of Trump because they tend to undermine mainstream Democrats.
3
@Vesuviano I agree with what you say, there is only so much space to comment here. I will be going out and doing phone banking for Bernie soon, He is my first choice and Warren is my only other choice. Cenk of TYT network, who has picked Bernie as his choice for President, interviewed Bernie a while back asking him how he would get his policies passed through Congress and Bernie said he would go out and rally the people to stand up and demand these policies and that if we all stand together we can do it, we can make the changes that need to happen. And I believe that because most of us want the same things which are called radical here but are normal and in the middle in all the other civilized countries. That is just poofy propaganda. And the democratic party can no longer carry on the way it has. We can see the corruption now, we see through them and you are right, We the people have to get out and change it or perish.
4
A terrific essay. Prof. Krugman is right: Thanksgiving represents aspirational America at its best, even though we haven't consistently lived up to those aspirations.
But if you wonder how the notion of a "war on Thanksgiving" can have any credibility, look no further than Charles Blow's "The Horrible History of Thanksgiving" and David J. Silverman's "The Vicious Reality Behind the Thanksgiving Myth," both printed in these pages in the past two days. Their overblown negativity is historically narrow, unbalanced, and unhelpful. As the late, great George Carlin observed, "Inside every silver lining, there's a dark cloud."
13
@Observer . Carlin was wise to have said so. I'd like to know where in your opinion these articles about the origins of what we know today as TG are "overblown, narrow, and unbalanced." Facts are stubborn things. One might view the true story of those early days are helpful, enabling us to see truth, and to understand that this is a history we must avoid rather than perpetuate.
8
@Thorny Simply put: the arguments like Silverman's and Blow's are based on a (negative) subset of all the facts available and often impose 21st-century standards on far different times and places. Just like the relentlessly positive storytellers of a century ago, they tell a story, but far from the whole story. In Carlin's terms, they look exclusively at the dark cloud and ignore the silver lining. It may make them feel "righteous," but it's bad historical thinking.
1
@Observer well said!
Trump has said he is grateful for himself on Thanksgiving. That pretty much says it all about him, and his followers. What is wrong with these people?
Do reasonable Republicans really support this man?
88
@Matt
Democrats should assemble a list of all the times Trump said that he is the most important person in the USA and Impeach him on the fact that the President is one citizen of many, and not supposed to put himself above all others as if he is King.
Everyone knows that Trump thinks the world revolves around him. (That is why his supporters love him.) This single fact makes him unable to exercise the responsibilities of POTUS.
The INTENT behind every decision Trump makes is to benefit himself, not We the People. That makes every official decision he makes and act of corruption.
But if Patriots keep pretending the Emperor is wearing the garb of president, Emperor Trump will be.
15
No historian here, I'm nevertheless beginning to feel alarmed about what I see as the ominous parallels between Western Europe in the late 1930s and the United States in the late 2010s. I look at my children and grandchildren and, for the first time in my 51 years in the United States, can't help being fearful about their physical safety -- because they are not of Scandinavian descent but Asian. The US is very much a powder keg already, and what manner of spark -- rumors, accidents, deliberate provocations -- is destined to ignite it is the thought that invariably crowds into my mind.
These times are certainly trying my soul.
75
You can take solace in one uniting theme with those of "Scandanavian descent" - we all came here to claim a portion of the ill-gotten pie plundered and repackaged by those immigrants who came before us. Enjoy and Happy Thanksgiving!
5
@R N Gopa1
I'm scared also.
The Right is not going to change.
The Left is not going to change.
Moderates must choose a side.
If we do not outnumber the hateful, greedy, violent Right, they will make Trump "president for life."
19
I’m curious where the parallels are supposed to be. In 1935 Germany stripped German Jews of citizenship. Later Germany aligned itself with imperial Japan, which even by today’s standards, is not and never was, a melting-pot country.
Maybe it’s the massive bubbling-up that you’ve noticed, just like everyone else has, relative to Trump’s strong negatively and open bring-back-the-good-old-days (MAGA) philosophy. Fair enough. There is significant potential danger in that.
But we overlook things: Hitler, the supreme dictator, built the Autobahn using the bones of people he brutally subjugated, but Communist (Socialist) Russia under Stalin did similar and got away with it mostly in our weak or even non-existent memories. There’s danger in that too!
The right pulls the wool over our eyes as if yesterday was always better than today and the left covers us in a cloud of opium about just how good things will be after we give up all personal rights to the collective for our own good! Yes, there are extremes on both sides and what’s a poor kitchen mouse to do when both sides have a butchers knife in their hands?
Cling to the U.S. Constitution — it seems to be the only thing standing in the way of tyranny nowadays! It’s stopping Trump from doing everything he wants to do and it’s stopping the opposition from doing the same. No other country on this planet has a document quite like it. The Constitution is defending itself when the right and left would have their way with it. Thank God!
1
Mr.Krugman is a fine columnist,but this
column is overly optimistic. some polls
put Trump's popularity at around fifty
percent. the brutal fact is that there's
a better than fifty percent chance
he will be re-elected.I hope that I am
wrong,but America is in for many more
years of Trump and company. a good
part our fellow Americans not only fully
support Trump, but are committed to
his agenda,whatever racism or white
nationalism it may unabashedly entail.
18
@Frank Which polls? Go to 538.com or even RCP - it's around 41-42%. Trump has less than a 50% chance of winning. That's not the issue. Last time he had about a 10% chance of winning and he took it - I beat 1/10 odds all the time. This time it's higher for him but it's likely he will lose.
We need to win Congress also.
8
@Frank
If Trump wins a second term, then he will have succeeded in getting away with always acting like a king, and nothing will stop him from governing like a king.
When a king says "lock her up," or "someone, should beat that guy up," people are locked up or beaten up without due process of law.
Trump threatens us with "the military, the police, and Bikers for Trump." The military is forbidden to operate against US citizens, Trump is not supposed to control the police, and Bikers for Trump would be a paramilitary organization operating with impunity ordered by the president, but Trump doesn't care about how the Constitution is supposed to organize government. He thinks he is king.
Ask Trump's buddy, the crowned Prince of Saudi Arabia, who beheads more people than ISIS.
The Right wants a corporate theocracy where "some people are more equal than others." That is incompatible with our Constitution.
If the Left and moderates do not unite to beat them, the USA will be over.
10
@Frank couldn’t agree more. This essay came across like a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special. Completely uncharacteristic of anything a Krugman usually writes.
1
Do you read other op-eds like Charles Blow’s?
Thanksgiving is based on a bogus story. The real one is of deception, slaughter and infamy. I rather celebrate Passover with loved ones.
7
@Blunt
I like Passover as well as a celbration of freedom, but just about with every holiday, its negative side can be highlighted, as in the slaying of the Egyptian firstborn and the drowning of their military in the Red Sea. Perhaps days of fasting and atonement like Yom Kippur might pass or Labor Day in the US.
3
@Blunt So Passover isn't a bogus story? Hate to bust your bubble but it most certainly is a completely made up story. We now know enough about Egyptian history to know this.
As for the actual Thanksgiving story, it's a bit complicated but there really was an Indian who showed the Pilgrims how to cope in Massachusetts. And an Indian chief who gave them permission to settle in a former Indian village whose former inhabitants had perished in a disease picked up from Europeans who the Indians had started trading with.
It would be quite stupid to blame the Europeans for unknowingly bringing in diseases.
Now it didn't take long for later arrivals from Europe to decide to take land from the Indians and this is quite clearly something we can blame them for.
Did you know that the Mohegan tribe has survived pretty much in place since those times?
I grew up on Long Island. The Indians who lived there were attacked and enslaved by other Indians from Connecticut. It wouldn't have happened if Europeans hadn't showed up, but the actual genocide of the original Long Island Indians was carried out by other Indians who were acting on their own.
What’s really missing on a day of Thanksgiving is protest about the way Donald Trump abuses and degrades women in plain sight. His denials don’t wash. His enablers and defenders are sickening. Last Monday, global demonstrations were held to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Here in the United States — nothing. The silence of good people is deafening. As an American woman I will be thankful when he is voted out.
39
@Lynk
the good news is that 65% of voting women have turned against him!!
1
It is indeed interesting to know that all the vegetables and fruits that we eat for Thanksgiving and every other day come originally from South America and Mexico : beans, corn, potatoes, tomatoes, squash ,chocolate, chili, and others and how cynical Americans are with the people from these countries.
23
Seriously everybody. Let us get together and tell Trump that he is the best, the brightest, the most magnificent. Then when he acts on his emotions, we can say Yes ., sir you and only you can save the country, then when DJT is accepting all these accolades, Pow, we introduce the Congress! Yes, we can stop Trump. Congress, do what the Constitution requires. It is not that hard. Do it.
11
@christina r garcia
The House will, but the senate is controlled by republicans. They will never do the right thing.
6
Trump pardoned turkeys names bread and butter. He flew across the world to Afghanistan to thank the US troops on Thanksgiving (TG) day at Bhagram air force base and is traveling back as of this hour. It is time the better angels of our nature thank our president for what he does tirelessly to thank our defense forces and the law enforcement. So far 2300 brave US troops have lost their lives in Afghanistan fighting America's longest war initiated by G.W. Bush and continued through the entire 2 terms of the Obama admin. and 20,000 Americans have been injured for varying degrees and several have been permanently disabled or suffer from PTSD. Trump is trying to end the wars and bring the troops home safely to reunite with their families.
Trump is a compassionate president more than all his predecessors if he can bring the useless regime change wars which he did not initiate. More innocent Muslims have annually died or forced to abandon their bombed out homes in the first 16 years of this century than annually during the Trump presidency. 7 million of our fellow Americans and residents have found jobs that pay for the food that they can put on their tables for TG that could not before Trump became president. On this TG day do we have to be so ungrateful for all the good that has happened during the Trump presidency and not even say a simple Thank you to a person who decided to take on the most challenging job in the world and try to make America and the world a better place?
9
@Girish Kotwal . OK, I'll skip the "most compassionate" comment as hopeless -- malignant narcissists are incapable of empathy. I'll point out however that Trump has no idea how to extricate the US from ME wars. He proved that when he tweeted his withdrawal orders in Syria, leading to the betrayal of our allies, mass refugee crises, and the ceding of power to the enemies of democracy -- Putin and Assad. The troops are not coming home -- they have been moved to Iraq to protect the interests of the obscenely wealthy US oil industry. He emboldened and invigorated ISIS, and is responsible for the freeing of ISIS fighters from Syria. He supplies the murderous Saudi regime with billions of dollars of weapons and a US mercenary army to bomb and massacre the civilian population in Yemen.
He weakens NATO, an organization that has been the main force in preventing war. He pardons war criminals. He's hapless and helpless in the face of NK's nuclear buildup. He destabilizes the ME by withdrawing from the Iran deal, simply to spite the black man, his predecessor who justly humiliated the fool's birther nonsense on national TV.
The presidency for him is not a "job." It's watching Fox News, golfing, and holding screeching rallies where he encourages his followers to violence. It's grifting and squeezing money through ignoring the emoluments clause. It's schmoozing up to dictators and promulgating white nationalism.
15
@Girish Kotwal There is zero evidence Trump has compassion or empathy for anyone other than his immediate family. He is motivated by narcissism and desire for more power and more money. His whole life demonstrates that, a life that you apparently know nothing about. Furthermore this country is not currently involved in any "regime change wars." We went into Afghanistan to prevent Al Qaeda from organizing any more attacks on America and Americans after 911. There is no war in iraq. We went into Syria to prevent Isis from committing more genocide and to reduce the chance of attacks on American soil.
10
@Girish Kotwal
Respect is earned. Gratitude requires a selfless act.
trump's compassion does not extend to the children he jails, the women he molested and disrepects, democrats, Congress, our natural resources, nor our values.
trump's every action is aimed at re-election. He does not care about you, me, nor the country or constitution he swore to defend. Don't be fooled when trump acts like a president. The tv show host posing as president has a long history of failing to keep his word.
Now he wants to betray the Afghanis by negotiating to give the country to the Taliban. That's surrender, not peace making.
8
What does Trump understand about anything? We have a president who, as always, is faking it. The biggest fakes in the room are Trump, his sycophants, Republican and House Senators and those who voted for him. Trump hates everything unless he benefits. Thanksgiving, Hanuka, Christmas are soft for Trump. They are OK if he makes money. Otherwise they are a total wast of his time.
19
@Paul Raffeld
Trump understand that the way to rip up the Constitution and make yourself King, is to constantly govern as if you are King and dare everyone to do something about it.
Trump may be ignorant of American history, but he knows how the dictators that he admires made themselves "president for life." Act like a king, until you are King.
Like a king:
Trump considers himself Superior, not equal to other citizens
Trump considers himself The State.
Trump calls his critics "treasonous" because attacking Trump is attacking the state.
Trump demands personal loyalty from public servants, and publicly berates his own appointees that protect the Constitution instead of him.
Trump calls for violence against his critics without due process, because kings are not subject to the law or Constitutions.
Trump takes payments from foreign governments.
Trump says, "the Press is the enemy of the People," and calls for violence against journalists and news organizations.
Trump governs by whim and edict instead of faithfully executing the law.
Trump allies with foreign governments, praising those who attack our elections and attacking our defenders.
If you shred a Constitution in private, no one knows. You have to shred it on TV, day after day, so that people understand that they are no longer protected by tradition and can only be protected by loyalty to the king.
Moderates must choose a side. Left or Right?
6
Trump has no better angels. His nature is greed. spite, selfishness, and self-pity. He represents the worst characteristics of humankind.
73
The fact that this Nobel Prize winner, esteemed professor, and keen observer of American affairs can write the following should give us all pause, especially Congressional Republicans—although at this point I have given up on them.
“Trump and company are, without question, white nationalists whose values are far closer to those of European blood-and-soil authoritarians than they are to the American tradition. And the entire Republican Party appears ready to back Trump no matter how completely he betrays not just American values, but American interests.”
70
We have not changed since Americans took sides in the civil war: Losers, the minority, the winners, the majority; just like democracies work. The hatred keeps going.
The Confederates did not learn the saying of Napoleon: "God is on the size of big armies"; that was in those times.
As with the poor friendly Indians, those white supremacists are also condemned by history to lose and disappear; it is a matter of time.
5
Since we are talking about a humanistic spirit rather than any particular rite please let us never forget that our president is a man who openly mocked and mimicked a person with a neuromuscular disorder ( a reporter).In my opinion if there was ever an example of "case closed" that has to be it.
46
@stuart shapiro
That is dispicable, but not Impeachable.
Compare Trump's behavior to the Constitution and call his constant contradictions and violations of the Constitution High Crimes.
Anything less normalizes High Crimes against the Constitution, and gives Trump the power to make his prejudices law, by Twitter Decree.
3
A few hours earlier Charles Blow tells us the version he views as the true ugly really Thanksgiving story.
So yes Trump has a point that some are undermining every patriotic narrative. Yep.
3
@Yes to Progress . Charles's article is not his "views," but the version that states facts. Does it reflect poorly on the intolerant vindictive Pilgrims and paint a different picture than the sanitized, "patriot" narrative? Yes, but it's true. If you must rely on a myth then I'd call that denial, not patriotism. There may be a lot of positives since that first meeting with the American Indians who the Europeans soon slaughtered -- all well and good. But let's not perpetuate a false story of TG's origins.
4
@Yes to Progress It is he who is undermining our very democracy and all of the institutions which protect our national security. He is the enemy, not a patriot, and is selling out the very soul of this country by the day. Putting the words Trump and patriotism in the same sentence is an oxymoron to beat all oxymorons.
3
@Yes to Progress
Patriotism is recognizing reality and talking responsibility for it, as a nation. If you lie to yourself, you can't tell the truth to anyone.
Without facts, logic, math, and science, the Constitution and our Republic are meaningless.
No progressive “War on Thanksgiving” you say?
Read Charles Blow’s column published in this very paper. On Thanksgiving Day.
10
@Frank . That's not a war on TG, it's setting the record straight, and appealing to us not to repeat the tragic events of those times.
16
@Frank
One person's opinion is not a trend.
It's doubtful that Frank Bruni speaks for progressives. he speaks for himself.
"A benign meeting of races and cultures" ? Really ?
(Remembering that one race had metals technology and the associated weaponry, while the other did not. Not to mention
that one race had relative immunity to the diseases they brought with them, while the other did not).
'Benign' is not really the right word, but it is understandable, coming from an alpha caucasian male.
2
@Irene
Neither side had any understanding of the impact of foreign germs. The Europeans did not have intentions of being bioterrists. Stop trying to push a false narrative that they did.
2
for those of you who said there is no war on Thanksgiving, read the today's article from NYT's own Charles Blow, Trump was right YET AGAIN
10
@Jon So, one pundit casts a light on the reality of the origins of this day, and you generalize it to a whole political party? Trump also said that what's he's most grateful for is HIMSELF. And, he has never been "right"
6
@Jon
What is wrong with setting the record straight? Do you mean to say the Europeans were so nice to our First Americans?
4
You cannot have a functioning democracy if the majority of the electorate is uniformed , naive and just plain stupid. There is just no other way to put it. Those folks behind Trump at his rallies guffawing every time he swears, sucking it up, seeming to be enjoying it. This 2020 presidential election coming up isn’t referendum on Trump or the democratic candidate, whomever it might be. It’s a referendum on us, the voting public.
27
Very well put NY Times! People MUST get out and “ Rock The Vote”! Otherwise nothing changes! Vote Democratic in ‘20!
5
You cannot have a functioning democracy if the majority of the electorate is uniformed , naive and just plain stupid. There is just no other way to put it. Those folks behind Trump at his rallies guffawing every time he swears, sucking it up, seeming to be enjoying it. This 2020 presidential election coming up isn’t a referendum on Trump or the democratic candidate, whomever it might be. It’s a referendum on us, the voting public.
3
Why do people who support Trump insist that people who long ago concluded that Trump is thoroughly unfit to be President “hate” Trump? What is “hate?”
7
Credit to the photographer for this photo. Says it all.
3
"After all, the Pilgrims were refugees fleeing persecution by the English monarchy,"
True. But they were Puritans, of the same ilk who eventually cut the head off the King of England and established a theocratic dictatorship backed up by their own army. Kind of like the Taliban.
And, for some real irony, when the Puritans ruled England, they banned the feasts of not only Christmas, but Easter, too.
Americans like to romanticize the Pilgrims. But these were people who used to torture and murder Quakers for not being religious enough. And they later slaughtered the Indians who came to their first thanksgiving.
13
Not actually true; the impulse to relocate to near the Virginia Colonies was made by the leadership who had been living, with a substantial group of their followers, in the Netherlands, in Leiden. Far from being oppressed, they were accepted, but found the society in that country too permissive. They were already out of England for 7 or so years when the decision was taken. And when it was, it was done with the help of investors as capitalist enterprise promising returns.
One of the forces causing them to choose to subjugate someone else’s continent was their loss of members, many of whom were moving back to England, finding life there easier than in Holland. And they knew that although there were dangers, ironically the protection of an existing English colony would make life easier; as would the already well established fact that the previous century of European unwanted intrusion into North America had brought effective mass deaths that had left many of the areas that they proposed to subjugate prepared.
America’s founding has more to do with Jonestown that the myths of Jamestown, but enjoy the holiday! As the recent waves of hostility that broke on Charles Blow for unvarnished remarks on Thanksgiving show, Americans like a Big Lie to go along with a Big Meal, and who, in the age of Trump can be surprised?
I’m sure that there were German families who, seated at Christmas dinner, or Easter in the 60’s said, “why do we always have to talk about the war?”
7
@dan
Their stay in the Netherlands was never meant to permanent. They were in essence looking for a homeland.
In short, they were a bunch of people seeking religious freedom but did not mind oppressing others.
1
@dan "the impulse to relocate to near the Virginia Colonies was made by the leadership who had been living, with a substantial group of their followers, in the Netherlands, in Leiden."
Indeed, but they originally went to Holland to avoid being forced to accept the rules of the Church of England, ultimately headed since Henry VIII by the Crown. Ironically, the Dutch liberalism that protected them was turning the Puritans' children into what they considered to be libertines.
1
Trump has much to celebrate. No matter how outrageous his behaviour. No matter how much he maligns the Justice system. No matter how many personal insults he hurls. No matter how much respect and deference he shows to Putin.A sizeable minority of the American voters remain steadfast in their support of Trump. Perhaps enough for a second term. That is a lot to be thankful for.
5
@Milton Lewis Such is the nature of cultism. The more outrageous, crazy, and out of control their leader becomes, the harder they cling to and worship him
1
Actually, Trump successfully used the day to prove that he is presidential.
Like the Puritans who were like the Calvinists Trump undoubtedly believes in pre-destination at least in this life. And undoubtedly the bankster, Wall Steeters, oil barons, cattle barons, real estate developers are also very happy/thankful that he is the prez.
I wonder how many of the people one would like to help actually do vote. Unless something dire happens...
2
@Auntie Mame This con man, this fraud, hasn't behaved "presidentially" since the day he took office
1
Despite Dr. Krugman's assertions, many farmers and rural Americans greatly appreciate Thanksgiving (even though they may have voted for Trump). His articles often divide and foster antipathy between Americans. The significance of Thanksgiving in America (and in fact all agrarian societies) seems lost on him here.
Dr. Krugman and many of his readers seem to have little appreciation for farmers and other rural Americans who actually harvest food or otherwise participate in food production. Many seem to be under the misguided belief that most farmers (and even most rural people) are hypocrites and even "wards of the state" (as Dr. Krugman recklessly put it, 10/31/19).
To correct Dr. Krugman's misdirection, just because 40% of farm income is associated with some form of federal aid (USDA statistic) it does NOT mean that the average farmer has 40% of their income coming from taxpayers! (Farm income is not normally distributed, as Dr. Krugman surely knows.) The majority of farm subsidies go to the largest 10% of our farms - the very "farms" or agribusinesses that small farms (like ours) have to compete against, without the benefit of subsidies. The majority of American farms are under 100 acres and do not see a cent of direct farm subsidy. Many, if not most, of these farms require outside employment in order to pay the bills. Many of us believe that nonindustrial/small-scale food production is a matter of national security - and that Thanksgiving is the best holiday of the year!
17
Farmers are now going bankrupt at record rates.
6
@carl bumba . Well thanks for your perspective. I agree with you, but I don't see that Trump is helping the small-scale farmers. He is not making the systemic changes that are necessary to keep American agriculture viable and prosperous for everyone. Because he has no idea how to do that. In my view, as a descendant of immigrant farmers, his trade wars have heavily damaged farming and other industries. Throwing billions at farmers in order to keep his disastrous policies afloat will not end well. I say that in sympathy for the rural people who are suffering and will suffer more if he is re-elected.
13
@Steve Bolger
Tell me about it.... But if you think it's a recent development and due to Trump you are wildly mistaken. For instance, milk is now at $18/100wt.. It was down to $12 during (but also because of) Obama.
4
There's another holiday Trump ought to detest. Martin Luther King Day. Here's one more: Veteran's Day. Or maybe Trump and his party detest any holiday that involves thinking of sacrifice, thanking others, and finding something to be grateful for. They do seem to go out of their way to make certain that we can't give thanks for too much.
When I'm asked what I'm thankful for I have to wonder sometimes. Am I glad I'm alive? Maybe. Am I glad to have a family? Yes but I'm not sure if I can support them so maybe I shouldn't have one at all. After all, in America, if one is poor, one is automatically undeserving. And charity is only for the rich. I'm grateful for the things that cannot be taken away from me. Being able to take long walks on cold days. Having a brother to laugh with. Having a mother who was generous enough to take me in when I needed it. But those are things I'm thankful for every day, not merely on Thanksgiving.
I'm thankful I'm not rich. I'm glad I do know what it is to be unemployed for a long period of time against my will. I can never make the easy generalizations many luckier people make about others. I'm thankful that having a handicapped brother taught me that people are worthy of love and respect even if they aren't perfectly normal. I'm thankful I can still laugh.
95
@hen3ry
Actually charity is not for the rich. Relatively speaking, the rich are far less charitable than the poor. Yes, there are notable exceptions like Buffett and Gates. But many billionaires give nothing.
5
Krugman makes a great historical chapter and verse case as to why the Donald should dislike Thanksgiving.
Those specifics aside, I wonder, however, if the main reason might be more simple:
I think the concept of gratitude - the essence of Thanksgiving - is foreign to him. He believes he is entirely a self-made man - so why would he be thankful to anyone or anything?
Of course, he conveniently forgets:
1) The hundreds of millions of gifts and bailouts from Daddy
2) Chris Christie's very timely 25 million dollar write-off of Trump's tax debt from 30 Mil to 5 Mil when he was facing bankruptcy, and
3) The involuntary "contributions" of countless unpaid and underpaid contractors and vendors, just to name a few...
Alas, being mindful of such things requires an ounce of self-awareness.
37
@Mark Keller
The holiday requires people to give. trump only takes.
5
@Zeke27
So True, and nicely stated.
@Mark Keller He stated that what he's most grateful for was HIMSELF this morning
4
Pelosi and Schiff are not going after Trump to dishonor him, but rather because he violated the law and doesn’t believe in the rule of law.
Do you understand the issue?
32
Happy Thanksgiving. What happened? Has every holiday, religious or secular, been taken over for some other purpose than the original intention? This is my 64th Thanksgiving and wow is it not what it used to be. I'm really, REALLY, happy I had the chance to grow up when the day was a feast of family and friends, a break in the action, a good time. I know the history of the holiday but it was never an issue but rather a reason to gather at the time. Oh well, things change and I hope they do again.
9
@ExileFromNJ
"a feast of family and friends, a break in the action, a good time."
It still is, except in New York City where no one likes America.
1
@ExileFromNJ . Fine. Enjoy yourself. Gather. Sounds like things haven't really changed for you. There are millions of hungry homeless Americans who can't celebrate the way you would like to think we all do, or should. If that's disturbing, don't think about it. Or you, or I, could donate time, money, clothing, food, and give others something to be thankful for.
1
@Thorny
"Or you, or I, could donate time, money, clothing, food, and give others something to be thankful for."
Or ?
So, it is your assertion that if one celebrates Thanksgiving, happily, and is comfortable with the tradition, then one must also be cheap, moneygrubbing, and heartless.
It is this smug, self-righteous elitism that got Trump elected in the frist place, and will get him re-elected in 2020. It is the dominant shared characteristic among all progressive leftists.
We've had 400 years to build our own traditions. Why do you suggest we can't or shouldn't enjoy them. Some reporters have a penchant for writing informative, creative narrative; others...well, they just like to poke and prod at people and call that journalism. Having an opinion does not make one adept at sharing it, as your column illustrates quite effectively.
6
@gblack02
Please quote where Dr. Krugman suggests we shouldn't enjoy the holiday.
Also, he isn't a journalist.
10
@gblack02 Did you not notice the word Opinion above the Krugman op-ed? The NYT and WaPo and presumably every other respectable newspaper clearly distinguishes its opinion pieces from its journalism pieces. Opinion pieces are meant to poke and pro and offer food for thought. If that bothers you skip the opinion pieces and just read the articles by the journalists and reporters. You may not like the facts they report but you will be getting facts. Unlike at Fox news where fact and opinionated fiction are intertwined in a gordian knot.
@gblack02 I think it's been 243 years, not 400
Re "Not only is it unique to our country,": I'm sorry, I don't believe this is true. I believe Thanksgiving is also celebrated in Canada, Liberia, and some Caribbean nations, albeit not on the same day as in the US. And, at least in Canada, Turkey appears to be traditional for the meal, too. Seems rather in its spirit to share the holiday with others.
13
@dfm yes Thanksgiving is celebrated in Canada in October but there is no mythical first meal and the holiday is not the big deal it is in the US. It is a different type of holiday , yes it is about thanks for the year’s harvest and in Quebec at least, was a Catholic feast (though that is for most no longer relevant) but it has no emotional link to the foundation of the nation. In essence Krugman is right, by its size and importance in society, its foundation myth, American Thanksgiving is unique. That the two holidays share the same name does not make them the same. I prefer Canadian Thanksgiving because that is where I grew up and am not keen on myths.
I have to disagree with Paul and continue to agree with Charles Blow on the better angels part of this holiday.
Actually, Thanksgiving is right up Trump's alley, if you follow *actual* and factual American history. When Europeans first came here, they killed Native Americans with the germs rats brought on the ships. Then, as they settled here, Europeans killed Native Americans for their land.
Fast forward a few hundred years and, under Trump, America has jailed Central American, Haitian and African migrants who came here to work and make a better life. Many of the Central American migrants are indigenous people who came here with children. Trump's Border Patrol put their children in cages after they separated them from their parents. Under the care of Border Patrol, some children have died and many were sexually abused.
This is completely consistent.
We need to stop living in fantasies about who we can be, at times, as a nation. We will never improve if we don't stop.
136
@Rima Regas
There's only one way to atone for these sins. Leave America now and give it back to ... well, who? The Iroquois? The Apaches? The Hurons? The Aztecs? In any case, I nominate you to lead by example. Maybe you even have enough credit card rewards points to get business class on the way out.
34
Actually, the pilgrims lived in peace with Native Americans for 50 years. The idea that they immediately started killing Native Americans is revisionist history.
22
@Rima Regas, and we broke every promise we made to the Native Americans. We are responsible for the poverty and despair in their lives. We viewed them as less than human. Trump would fit right in with the Pilgrims.
39
Another Trump hate piece, and on Thanksgiving. I find nothing honorable about Schiff or Pelosi in their impeachment efforts. You may, but I don’t. We see things so differently. And, yet, you’re so quick to brush a President and his supporters as white nationalist racists for wanting to impose some form of immigration control over our borders. Mr. Krugman, we Trump supporters simply don’t care what you think about Trump. But, at least I wasted some time today reading this piece, and on Thanksgiving.
26
@JP I’m glad we see things differently. I would hate to see the world the way trump supporters do.
204
@JP Thanskgiving is the ultimate American hypocrisy.
The organized genocide of the native Americans is well documented from the ship loads of small pox infected blankets given to the Indians deliberately to the non respect of the treaties, even after the mass deportation to the reserves where there was nothing to eat , to the hanging of natives by Lincoln in the 1862 rebellion.
Let's not speak about the more recent abuses to this day.
Land leases not paid, etc...
9
@JP his articles are for people who can reason. Trump supporters would find them difficult.
54
With the economy humming along, Krugman is reduced to attacking Trump for hating Thanksgiving, something Trump does not do.
17
@Ambrose Rivers You've got it backwards. Mr. Krugman says that Trump ought to hate it, because it celebrates things he is trying to destroy. It is Trump who has accused "the left" of " making war on Thanksgiving. " Another example of how our noble leader, in his unmatched wisdom, is working hard to bring the country together, sowing peace, fellowship and brotherhood throughout the land.
42
@Ambrose Rivers
Well said. Krugman’s run out of material so he has to try to connect the NYT’s hate of Trump to Thanksgiving. It must be draining to wake up each day so full of hate, pessimism & revisionist history. Despite the real untidiness of history, the intent and mission of the holiday is for us to pause and remember the blessings we do have; and develop an attitude of gratitude for family, freedom and other blessings accorded us as citizens of this exceptional country. Or you can remain a sour, cynical “ne”-sayer, wallowing in self absorbed elitism.
10
@Ambrose Rivers
Krugman has been wrong about literally everything he has predicted to date. History shows that adopting the inverse of his opinion is a winning strategy.
5
Well, NY Times columnists certainly have varying views about Thanksgiving. Charles Blow states that it is a coverup for vicious events in American history. Mr. Krugman indicates that Thanksgiving is a celebration of America's best values that are lost, of course, on Trump supporters who are really bigots. Where Mr. Blow and Mr. Krugman essentially agree is that Thanksgiving is another vehicle for expressing their bile at this country or many of its citizens. Shameful.
25
@Alex They're expressing thier bile at those expressing their bile at this country and the vast majority of its citizens.
53
Trump supporters have certainly earned what they get. Shame on them.
116
@Alex dont deny your past, your history, ignoring the horrors perpetrated by those who came to your country from the old world will not make them go away, it just further entrenches them.
44
Every year Boston print journalists used to have a family outing at Plimoth Plantation, a re-enactment village recreating the Pilgrim settlement. The site was built based on historical research and actors played the role of villagers. We went year after year and, for the kids, it was never boring, though that was mainly because there were so many kids.
As for the journalists, they smoked and drank and backslapped and told dubious stories, which they had a talent for. The journalists might as well have been on the moon.
When it was time to go, my dad would always ask what I had done. I’d tell him about the Pilgrims and the other kids. His eyes would glass over.
One time my dad wrote a story about the gathering. Before he did, he came up to my room and asked me where it had been held at. I think his story also talked about the meaning of Thanksgiving.
Lol
4
Thanksgiving is my favorite US holiday because after well over a century, it is still the least commercialized national holiday of all. It’s also the least political of the holidays, at least on the surface.
Some year I hope to break bread with a Canadian friend or five when they celebrate in October. This was not the year.
I hope people have a restful Thanksgiving. To all the people working today, from public servants to call center staff to, yes, the news, all my best.
25
I celebrate that we didn't succeed in wiping out the Native Americans. They survived our genocide.
I will celebrate more when they are lifted out of poverty and oppression along with other minorities and all the poor.
709
@dr. c.c
A VERY few survived and not through any conscious effort to prevent total extinction. The fact that any Native Americans survived was a disappointment to a good number of those that settled the country.
Stuck in the worst land remaining in North America the remaining natives were regularly cheated out of any profits made from those places. How much is owed tribes by the trusts set up to handle coal and oil royalties? The only opportunity provided to most are legal gambling - businesses with limited opportunity.
Many tribes talk of periodic deaths and rebirths of this world. We're supposedly due for a reboot. It had better happen soon or there won't be anything left to be reborn.
The economic success of the US came from its exploitation of raw materials that had previously been left untouched - or mostly untouched - by those here before Europeans arrived. A few exceptions exist - gold and silver mined in Central and South America. Billions of tons of copper were mined in Michigan (though some speculate that most of that went east where combined with Cornish tin, it became the Bronze of the Bronze Age).
27
@dr. c.c.
They will not be lifted out of poverty. It doesnt work that way. They will get out of poverty and oppression by their own efforts when we get out of their way and stop oppressing them. Our helping hand has often been in reality our most diabolical instrument of oppression, so we have to be careful rather than arrogant. What we can do is admit and start dismantling the systems we have constructed to oppress and exploit them.
14
@dr. c.c.
Amen! Right on!
2
I heard Trump in Afghanistan earlier today. It was a shambles of a speech, where Trump talked about having a defence budget of $2.5 trillion, a new type of submarine that we would not believe, and a space force the envy of the world. He threw in the obligatory attack on Obama, to ensure this visit was indeed a political one. He appeared to be suffering the effects of jet lag or over medication, as he was not himself.
Trump is incapable of sharing a spirit of love and joy, as he is permanently on attack mode, 24/7.
Wonderful family holiday times like Thanksgiving and Christmas, would be wasted on Trump, as he would be too busy picking new fights, demonising decent, ethical Americans, abusing the US Constitution, or putting out more fictional prose about his administration’s achievements.
314
@Barry of Nambucca
Sounds like Donald just revealed a bunch of previously TOP SECRET items (or is being crazier than usual)
Haven't heard a thing about any new submarines and the concept of a 'space force' has previously been limited to venues that focused on back engineering alien technology and defending Earth against the same aliens Ronnie talked about. Either that or our Space Force existed under US Navy command decades ago and served as the model for Star Trek.
Was Donald watching NETFLIX and mistaking old reruns for security briefings?
12
@Barry of Nambucca
Trump was not himself? Not by your description; he was himself.
13
@Barry of Nambucca
Whenever I hear Trump make a speech, which I try to avoid with the mute button, I am amazed anyone applauds the endless lies and drivel. My morning paper had a picture of him in Afghanistan with some guy in a suit and soldiers clapping. Our paper often has an advertising sticker on it, which I put over Trump’s face and body, ah, that’s better.
At least 40% of the American public seems incapable of critical thinking, even if voters are propagandized by right wing media, do they lack ears to hear? Every time Donald Trump opens his mouth, it’s a shambles of lies, self-pity and attacks, rinse and repeat. Oh, I forgot, also braggadocio is part of each braying, typically lie filled, not exaggerations folks, flat our lies. I am sure his claim of peace talks with the Taliban was made based on zero facts and planning, just another imaginary talking point. Now negotiators will scrabble to make that happen, don’t bother boys, he’ll sabotage whatever you achieve with his all or nothing approach.
He does seem even more disturbed than usual though, the impeachment inquiry is getting to him, which is good, but also dangerous. Donald Trump has no compunctions, he is capable of anything to retain power.
19
Great column Paul, just a couple of additions:
1) Canada has a Thanksgiving holiday as well, we celebrate the same ideas and, while we too are guilty of treating our indigenous peoples horribly, we are trying to make amends. We also have a country where a large percentage of the population that immigrated here, or were welcomed as refugees. By the way, we have universal health care, a comprehensive social safety net and are always voted amongst the happiest nations on earth.
2) Trump is the ultimate result of a conscious abandonment of the superb internal control framework that is the Constitution. It started with Patriot Act and has systematically brought America to its knees.
I hope you will emerge from this "Dark Period" as the "Shining City on the Hill", but sadly, I cant see it happening without some calamitous event that will hurt a lot of people.
p.s. - our taxes are not all that bad for what you get
1093
@Ergo
And, while I am both a U.S. citizen from birth, a life-long NYC resident, and a New York Rangers fan I love it when they play the teams based in Canada -- so that I get to hear your beautiful anthem, and get goose bumps!
P.S. I find ours 'unlistenable.'
93
No other national anthem celebrates a battle.
50
@Steve Bolger
Plenty of overwrought poetry does, which is what the Star Spangled Banner was before being set to a British drinking song.
I think one of the verses of Oh Canada mentions Laura Scudder,, ironically a heroine of the same war, but for the other side.
God Save the Queen has had dozens of verses drop in and out, one specifically heralding one of the last Scottish uprisings.
Here's the CIA's take on anthems:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/print_2218.html
12
I keep seeing all these editorials with writers being baffled about conservatives belief that liberals are "Waging a war on Thanksgiving."
It seems obvious to me where this is coming from. The trend in modern education has become to teach the actual facts of historical events, rather than the sanitized version that we all learned when we were kids (that would be the 70's-80's for me).
The resulting picture of the holiday is not so pretty, and conservatives are not inclined to respond to anything favorably, which triggers (if you'll forgive me for borrowing one of their favorite words) their cognitive dissonance in so visceral a way.
61
@Jason
Thanks for an explanation that makes sense. It applies to many things other than Thanksgiving. "Conservatives" are very thin-skinned about their illusions.
4
@Jason
The holiday was started by Lincoln, for very pretty purposes indeed. The fact some created a mythical false backstory does not change that fact.
I, for one, am thankful for the people reporting the real history of the Puritans' relation to the indigenous people they found here.
But the Puritans did not found Thanksgiving. Our greatest president, Lincoln, did, for “peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union,” although George Washington was the first president to proclaim a day of thanksgiving, issuing his request on October 3, 1789, exactly 74 years before Lincoln's proclamation
2
Thanksgiving is not unique to the US. Canada celebrates Thanksgiving too. We do it in October so we get a jump on it.
12
President Trump made a secret visit to Afghanistan today which was only announced recently. The troops were thrilled to have him there and he too was happy to visit. He said he could not have spent his Thanksgiving in a more rewarding away. It is false to say that he does not appreciate the holiday. He is a proud American who loves this country. Is it wrong for him to put Americans first?
He does not dislike immigrants but wants them to come here legally as do most Americans. What is wrong with that? We cannot allow illegals to continue crossing our borders. We have to have some kind of control as to whom enters. All other countries control their borders and we must too. Our country's safety depends on it.
9
Doesn't dislike immigrants? Trump shows hatred for immigrants on nearly a daily basis and uses Steven Miller to ramp up cruelty against immigrants as part of the US policy. Goodness sake, the man ran on birtherism and Hatred of Obama.
15
@KMW
I do not think Trump is putting Americans first With the Ukraine, he is risking our security for his own political gain. As it stands now, he has weakened the position of the Ukraine in it's fight against Russia, as it is clear America is not unified in its support of the new Ukraine president.
Trump is trying to drive wedges in the institutions that protect democracy: the press, the courts, science, and even the military. He has already weakened our standing as a respected world leader. He is trying to destroy even common sense protections for clean air and water, never mind his refusal to accept the health and security risks of climate change.
Please looks at his actual policies on immigration, the background and beliefs of Stephen Miller. They are not about 'some kind of control' over who enters the country. We already had that.
His presidency is making us less secure. Trump puts Trump first. He always has.
14
@KMW Trump uses the immigration issue primarily to keep his base stirred up for his own political advantage. He has done or promoted many cruel actions toward that end. Any person with even a shred of objectivity can see these things.
5
Hmmm, so the Native Americans were unable to protect their borders. People who first came to them as refugees wound up slaughtering them. Yet people still claim that racism is the only possible motivation for wanting to control immigration and still can't understand why anyone would support Trump...
7
The name ‘Thanksgiving’ in itself shows why Trump would hate the holiday. Trump is far too entitled to give thanks for anything, and far too self-absorbed to even think outside of himself and appreciate others p’ generosity.
Donald would have you believe that liberals are waging a war on Thanksgiving; if such an assault exists, it is coming from the character of Trump himself.
26
I stopped going to family parties in 2015, at the time of Trump's rise. And I avoided it again today to steer clear of some of my family's politics, which cut to the bone for me. I sure hope that when Trump's time is done, the people who supported him will come to terms with what their ignorance has wrought.
33
Hate it? Why? it offered a photo-op (in Afghanistan) that cost 'way less to fund than the thing in Korea. Yay thanksgiving, give thanks for photo ops.
1
Through his entire life, he has led with his ego, selfishness, and pathological desire for attention and self-gratification. What would he understand about community, giving, and gratitude? He’s like a villain in a Jimmy Stewart movie. Thanksgiving is an alien concept for a mind like Trump’s.
19
Trump should be grateful that so many of his henchmen are seemingly willing to take a fall (named for Albert T Fall, Sec. of the Interior in the Teapot Dome scandal).
After he signed the settlement with the State of New York for his fake Trump charity, Trump should praise God that his two kids, also implicated, have not been charged with theft by deception, a second class felony, subject to 20 years in prison, and that all his New York properties have not been slapped with (lis pendens) tax liens.
35
One really needs to hope that those "better angels " still exist and will be around to bail us out when the "stable genius" goes postal.
19
The moral of Paul's tale: don't invite in immigrants.
And ironically, red skinned people ended up doing the jobs immigrants didn't want.
1
Please, at least give Mr. Trump a break on Thanksgiving. Writing columns like this on Thanksgiving just lowers you down to his level. Maybe lower. Take a day or two off from criticizing Mr. Trump. Too many anti-Thanksgiving columns in the Times today. Yes, Mr. Trump has his obvious faults. As we are endlessly reminded of every day in the Times. You need to watch out that hatred gets in your own heart.
4
Next we will hear Trump was the Grinch that stole Xmas. Trump is a symptom of the Disease not the disease itself. What could Trump do if not for his enablers? To me Trump is the shiny object that keeps us from seeing what his enablers are doing. Stacking The Courts, Disenfranchising Voters and Hastening the Demise of our Planet while we eagerly await our daily ridicules Trump Tweet.We are being conned by The Right by watching their dancing ball Trump. While we wait for some on the Right to break ranks and condemn Trump The right is fleecing the country. How about next year we concentrate on beating Trump's enablers?
12
As President-for-Life of Turkey, I protest the picture, which has me in soft focus standing next to the Turkey-for-Life.
- Office of the Turkish President
5
@Tara I typed Turkey temperature cooking in Google search and a page with the weather in Turkey came up !
Obviously Trump lacks Grateful Gene. When Mueller Report blew over- you'd think he would be thankful instead of devising his next Scheme. When you feel entitled, can you really ever be thankful
11
The Pilgrims fled England to Amsterdam. Amsterdam’s secularism proceeded to alienate their children from their religion. That caused them to relocate to the wilderness.
4
@Steve Bolger It is more accurate to say the pilgrims settled in Leiden (they spent only a brief time in Amsterdam). The Netherlands was not secular but it was more tolerant of various religions (though worship for some had to be in hidden churches) and more liberal than the pilgrims found acceptable. The irony should not escape us: the Pilgrims were allowed to settle in Leiden by the tolerant inhabitants of the town but then found that very tolerance intolerable.
1
We should at least consider declaring war with Great Britain in the hope that they will come across the Atlantic Ocean, again, and burn the White House down. I am primed to give thanks for surrendering to the Queen rather than Putin. Where, oh where, have the principled 'conservatives' gone?
8
Krugman doesn't understand what Thanksgiving is about, or he wouldn't be writing this article, today...and don't blame the other guy, this was YOUR decision.
Hateful and small.
8
According to Trump, and corroborated by Fox News, Barak Obama had legislation crafted that would have banned Thanksgiving and renamed the Christmas season as the Rainbow holiday season.
Barak Obama has not returned phone calls asking for his comments.
3
@Indian Diner
Because Obama doesn't traffic in obviously fabricated conspiracy theories.
3
Like in today's New York Times "The Vicious Reality Behind the Thanksgiving Myth" by David Silverman, or "The Horrible History of Thanksgiving" by Charles Blow.
4
Oh boy, if there isn't a photo worthy of a caption competition. I'll start:
Turkey poses for White House photo shoot. So does the wild fowl.
8
"Band of bigots" quoted the writer? Really? Give some of us folks a break will you? I lean conservative but am very frustrated with the current state of political affairs on both the R and L. Not everyone that supports Trump or thinks conservative is a "bigot" are they?
5
Krugman, what has happened to you?
Don't you have better things to talk about. Don't you have a family to praise? Don't you have joyous memories? Is it that creepy editor? Won't he pay you for anything that not a hit piece?
I was driving the freeway today and thinking how Thanksgiving has become the unofficial family holiday of the United States.
And how there are people who attack the holiday because of the injustices suffered by many Native Americans. But if Native Americans weren't remembered in this holiday then when would they be remembered? Some other day that people would forget?
Thanksgiving is the holiday of refugees. The day when you remember your family history and how lucky you were that your ancestors came here.
It's a day when panhandlers and the homeless on the street get a little more money as givers remember how lucky their lives are and that others are not so fortunate.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.
6
The cover photo for this piece says it all.
2
Mr. Krugman: you should read Mr. Blow’s piece today. You hav either all wrong. Thanksgiving is evil.
1
I'm, a huge Krugman fan, but Thanksgiving is also celebrated in Canada, just earlier than we do it here.
6
@Tony Cooper Thanksgiving in Canada has a very different emphasis than in the US and is not associated with any mythical shared meal in the past. It is a low key affair compared to the American holiday, not a holiday people would fly across the country for, nor does it have strong ties with patriotic feelings. It's celebration (or not) varies tremendously from family to family. It is a lovely holiday for those who observe it but nothing like the big deal Americans make of theirs.
If we delve too deeply into our nation's history, we find that events are murkier than they are portrayed. Thanksgiving is one of those such happenings. Yes, it is a day of gratitude for this land which is capable of producing a bounty of foods to feed all America's people. It is a day of gratitude for its natural resources, for "purple mountain majesty above the fruited plain"; and for its aspired crowning "of good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea." Yet on this day of coming together, with friends and family, we find that the gifts from the land, the air we breathe, the water we drink are threatened by greed. We find that "brotherhood" is just an empty word when from the Native Americans of the past to African Americans, Central and South Americans, and non-Christians of the present, there remains bigotry and the rejection of equality. I do not mean this to be a downer. However, as we eat that turkey, those sweet potatoes and dressing, and pumpkin pie not only should we be thankful, but also we must remember that our work is far from done to regain and preserve our nation's promise.
17
"Trump and company are, without question, white nationalists whose values are far closer to those of European blood-and-soil authoritarians than they are to the American tradition. And the entire Republican Party appears ready to back Trump no matter how completely he betrays not just American values, but American interests."
That about sums it up. The problem is that millions of Americans fear that fate less than they fear a country headed by Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders. They equate what might be called democratic socialism with destruction of America. So for them Trump is the lesser of two evils. And of course Trump has many supporters who are also white nationalists so they are enthusiastic supporters and are hoping to see a white Christian nation emerge as a result of Trump's presidency and are certainly encouraged that things are moving in that direction by his immigration policy.
8
Well said, Dr. Krugman.
Trump probably does hate Thanksgiving. I get the sense that he hates EVERYTHING especially America.
But most of us love it. We love Thanksgiving and we love America. We love our Constitution, our ideals. We love the rule of law because it keeps us safe from tyranny.
We know we are still struggling. We do not have a perfect union. But we are working to improve our union. We will fiercely defend the idea of justice, of Equal Justice Under Law.
And, we remember that each and every modern American came from somewhere else. We are alive today because The First Nations were destroyed. We owe a great debt to the people of this land, the first peoples, and the fact that we are trying to lock out asylum seekers from other nations in our hemisphere is catastrophically wrong. It is just flat wrong.
We will overcome this. We will restore our sense of America, the Beautiful, and we will honor the promise of the lady in the harbor.
14
I really respect and enjoy Paul Krugman's work. I would have thought, however, that he would have given a little bit of credit to Jon Meacham for the several "better angels" comments and references. Meacham's recent book, Soul of America, focused on Lincoln's better angels reference and applied it to the conduct or lack thereof of different presidents and politicians in American history, with a veiled implication that our current president isn't rising to Lincoln's adage. But nonetheless a very good piece, as usual.
4
Well expressed. Happy Thanksgiving to all.
13
As Trump and his ilk have drained the nation's souls of happiness and humor, I can only hope that the gatherings of families relaxed everyone and brought some levity and love back to them. Let's just ignore the "Grinch" so we still have our Christmas and holidays. I remind that for most, there are three days more to congregate and share glee with the family and after that, use the phone frequently. It's a little humor to overwhelm the "metadata maniacs".
32
Thanksgiving is definitely an All-American holiday, perfect for columnists spouting noble ideals of the Founding Fathers in newspapers and on websites and especially terrific for retailers like Macy's and its annual parade and for consumers mainly concerned about sale items next morning on Black Friday. Let's hope nobody gets trampled to death in the stampede for bargains. It's the American way.
3
Is Thanksgiving really all that uniquely American? Didn't most cultures throughout the world, at least the parts of the world that have significant seasons, celebrate harvest? Feast because they had to slaughter most of their livestock that they couldn't feed over the winter? Take a day of rest and rejoicing after all their hard work and before the winter doldrums set in?
17
@P Buss so right , in Britain we celebrated Harvest Festival with Churches adorned with the fruits of the Harvest which in turn was given to those in need
15
I understand Trump only pardoned the White House turkey after it was proven to be a war criminal...
695
@Roger McSharry i heard that the turkey told him it knew where to server was and swore that Donald had better hair than it did
95
@Roger McSharry
Could have been a bribe too.
28
@Roger McSharry
Most turkeys have feathers that are black or brown. This turkey is white. Had it not been white, would it have been pardoned by Trump?
100
Even I think it should be given a rest on Thanksgiving.
15
I note that, as reported, during our Fake President’s surprise visit to Afghanistan for Thanksgiving the narcissist couldn’t avoid, before the assembled American troops, heaping superlative praise upon his own Administration for all of its many accomplishments. For Trump, today’s national holiday is “tailor made”. A day for all of us to give thanks that we presently have in the Oval Office the most amazing, magnificent, incredible, intelligent, and successful President ever: A TrumpThanksgiving!
9
Trump and his acolytes are okay with Thanksgiving because it involved white immigrants coming to America, and also the Pilgrims eventually began to annihilate the native populations.
13
" It is not merely for to-day, but for all time to come that we should perpetuate for our children's children this great and free government, which we have enjoyed all our lives." -- Abraham Lincoln. Seems to apply as well in 2019, to me and my friends, we have enjoyed freedom our entire lives, and hope our children live in freedom their entire lives too.
9
I love Krugman.
The proof will be in the pudding in November 2020. If Trump wins again Krugman's platitudes about what this country is will be completely disproved.
2020 will be the ultimate litmus test.
We either are what we strive to be as per Lincoln's Gettysburg Address or we are not.
I for one am not optimistic that the people of the battleground states will answer the call. I foresee the democratic candidate winning the popular vote by far more that Clinton did but still losing the electoral college.
16
@davey385
In order to lose the Presidency and fail to pick up ground in Congress, two things need to happen:
1. Enough ignorant people will still support Trump and Republicans and will turn out to support them, and
2. Enough educated people who see what Republicans are doing will have turned soft, or apathetic, and will not turn out to vote them out.
Trump's base is not large enough to win, even in the Electoral College, if Democrats and Independents turn out in large numbers. If that does not happen, and we prove ourselves unwilling to fight for what we have, we deserve to lose our Democracy.
11
Krugman, it was a celebration of a great massacre of natives, rather than thanks for harvest. Catch up on your history reading. The Pilgrims were grateful to be alive.
2
A telling photo of Roger Stone and Donald Trump!
10
"After all, the Pilgrims were refugees fleeing persecution by the English monarchy, which at the time was still an autocratic regime."
Paul, the Pilgrims were fleeing religious persecution. Why do you omit that very important fact?
"They were, in other words, exactly the kind of people Trump and company want to keep out."
How many are actually coming here because of persecution, Paul? Have you volunteered to sponsor any of them?
"Furthermore, the traditional portrait of the first Thanksgiving is as a moment of racial tolerance and multiculturalism: European immigrants sharing a feast with Native Americans."
You either forget the "why" of the celebration or choose not to mention it - thanking God for their survival with the help of others. About half the Pilgrims died that first winter, Paul. The survivors had much to be thankful for.
I blame we the people for electing these self-serving clowns. I also blame the media who pick sides and keep fanning the flames with their version of the "outrage du jour". When both sides can drop the hyper-partisanship and the destructive behavior that keeps us divided we will get back to what the framers of the Constitution intended.
11/28/19 @6:18 p.m. EST
6
Paul, it’s been almost two years since Trump announced tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. Remember all the doom and gloom that you predicted? The economy just keeps going. We just hit a new all-time high in the stock market yesterday. The truth is you want Trump to pull his punches on China, because it would be bad for the economy and bad for him. He’s not doing it and that’s frustrating you.
13
Welcome to Texas, the state that loves to look through a glass darkly.
4
"Thanksgiving is...a celebration of the values that actually make America great: openness to people who look or act differently, religious tolerance, sympathy for the persecuted, belief in human equality."
Here's part of what Lincoln actually said, Paul:
"It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union."
Submitted 11/28/19 @ 6:28 p.m. EST
5
Beautifully stated. Thank you, Mr. Krugman.
5
Thank you, Dr. Krugman, for pointing out that the holiday is nondenominational and began with Lincoln.
Thanksgiving might be the fourth great thing America brought to the world, behind liberty, the national parks, and public education.
55
@Mike S.
Eloquently stated, as always.
Thanksgiving celebrates the better angels of America.
Yes. But hide this column from Charles Blow. Still, I wonder how he spent today. Celebrating with a feast and his family? Or sotting alone and grumbling.
7
@Butterfly He was angry. The holidays are a significant depressant for many. I know in my case they were a time of more difficult work, fewer to help with it, lot of lofty expectations, and usually a concurrent illness to boot.
6
The spirit of thanks giving migrated into our constitution. No doubt, Trump and his party is violating that spirit. But, it started decades ago as a cruel, Pro-Rich Propaganda of the Right. Mitt Romney told to his wealthy political contributors that all supporters of Obama are free loaders, referring to poor and old. Although, the real free loaders are at the top referred by Elizabeth Warren as free loader billionaires. Now, the rich and powerful wants to break up the guard rails of democracy and become dictators to seal theIr hold. The Democratic Party is guilty as well by colluding across the aisle. People has to wake up to the motives of these moderate Democrats and compassionate Republicans to save our democracy. They are the ones who are killing our democracy by chipping away the constitution little by little, until it is too late to reverse it.
22
@Kodali: "They are the ones who are killing our democracy by chipping away the constitution little by little, until it is too late to reverse it."
We are killing the Constitution because we the people have forgotten what the framer's intent was. We have abdicated our responsibility to elect people of good moral character to actually defend the Constitution. We have given these elites unimaginable power and look at what we have become - a country with a powerful central government that has expanded into a welfare state. That was not what was intended.
4
@Kodali
Romney pointed out to his wealthy contributors that 47% of the population pay no federal income taxes, which happens to be factual and appealing to the people who are paying the bills.
Hillary said that 47% of the voters who were supporting Trump were deplorable racists, despite the fact that they had voted for Obama. The other 53% were economic losers. Her audiences of wealthy donors laughed, as did she.
Personally, if I didn't pay federal income taxes, I would accept the Romney factual assertion in preference to the Hillary slander.
The 0.1% are overwhelmingly Democrat contributors. They supported Hillary and will support Warren because Democrats will not increase their tax burden, both preferring to load up the middle class with the costs of their progressive programs. The 0.1% owns the Democrat message. The lemmings are tricked, as the elite MIT economist Gruber pointed out. No one with any sense would believe that Obamacare was anything other than a wealth transfer from the working class to big medicine cronies.
After Hillary and the DNC's criminal conspiracy with foreign interests hostile to Trump and American democracy was unsuccessful despite the expensive Steele dossier, the left decided to void the election through other means.
Gruberized voters are reacting emotionally to propaganda.
2
I don't see Trump hating Thanksgiving -especially when he can look to the controversies surrounding this exclusive American holiday. Trump can look to the atrocities committed against Native Americans by White European Settlers after the Mayflower landed on Plymouth Rock. The Pilgrims, a homogenous white Christian European community mistreating Native Americans would be attractive to someone supporting White Nationalism in the 21st Century. In Trump's case, it's not the Native Americans who are threatening the "Colony," but rather the Hispanics attempting to cross the Rio Grande. The knowledge we have of the history surrounding this holiday is something to be thankful for while Trump's presidency...is not.
6
I'm quite sure that Trump has no historical understanding of Thanksgiving, and he probably thinks it's some sort of religious holiday to gin up his base.
7
@Kristine: "I'm quite sure that Trump has no historical understanding of Thanksgiving..."
After reading Paul's piece it's clear he's using Thanksgiving merely as a political cudgel. He omits facts to help his own narrative, something both the left and right do on a daily basis.
3
In the first place, Donald Trump *does* hate Thanksgiving because he has nothing for which to be thankful.
He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He has dodged the call to service for his country. He has dissolved his inherited wealth through (alleged) dishonesty and fraud. He has cheated on his wives. He has cheated on his country. And yet, for all of the sins of his life (spoiler alert: much fewer than my own), he is lacking in humility and grace, two of the components of the act of thanksgiving. When one gives thanks, one humbles one's self and recognizes that someone or something larger than one's self has either intervened--or has caused to intervene--in the fortunes of said individual.
After his election to the presidency, Donald Trump was not grateful for his rarest of good fortunes. Rather than recognize that he was the beneficiary of the rare convergence of fates that interceded on his behalf, he took to himself all the credit for the victory. He mentioned no one but "me, myself and I" for his ascension to the 45th presidency. He has never been known, in his public life, to be introspective about anything or one. He has never been in doubt; never asked if this decision or that road is the correct one. He has never thought about another person.
So he has much to be thankful because, as president, he's the least deserving of the lot. He has never been known to pray or to enter a house of worship.
Yet, thanksgiving, to him, is an act of self-adulation.
237
@Red Sox, ‘04, ‘07, ‘13, ‘18
Did you read the column?
One can give thanks without something larger intervening.
Fine if you feel that way but fine if you don't.
2
@Red Sox, ‘04, ‘07, ‘13, ‘18
He does enter a house of worship, the Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea in West Palm Beach, FL, regularly on Christmas and Easter. Sadly, many of the congregation there stand and applaud him, which is itself inappropriate in a house of worship in a nation with the principles enshrined in our Constitution.
3
A time to be thankful, indeed - things are almost never so bad but what they can't get worse.
Having elected an 'Affluenza' POTUS, our country is viewing up close and personal what happens when reality TeeVee tries to merge with actual reality - the entitlement of a class who believes "when you're a star, they let you do it", an entitlement which places them above our norms and (they believe) actually above our laws.
Perhaps it was never a good idea for the paying members of Mar-a-Loco to indulge the owner (as reported in the NYTimes) by obeying a butler who would command "All rise" when the owner entered a room, even before he was POTUS.
America is lucky that WWII's fight against fascism was fought away from our shores (except Pearl Harbor), but one of the consequences of that scenario has been not having enough fear of radical rightists.
21
Professor K declares that Trump is excluded from Thanksgiving, because his spirit is inadequately generous. Haha
3
"...accusing progressives of waging a war on Thanksgiving, too, based on, well, nothing..."
I wonder if Krugman reads his own newspaper and the two columns conducting an all-out assault on Thanksgiving?
14
Our better angels whisper "put aside hatred for one day and be thankful for the blessings which God has bestowed upon our nation and its people"
2
As they (comically) say in Parliament, "Hear, hear!"
2
The big holiday on DJT’s calendar is not Thanksgiving but Dec. 25th, when he’ll glad croon (with all of his evangelical supporters) “...and may all your Christmases be white.”
15
Krugman should try reading the New York Times, two other opinion pieces have a very different take on Thanksgiving.
12
There's some seeming tension between Blow's piece and Krugman's, but they don't conflict. You can acknowledge that the legend of the first Thanksgiving is a cover for a much darker history while recognizing that the ideals celebrated are worthy. Krugman is writing about the actual holiday, whose history goes back no further than the Civil War. Blow is writing about the myth that others later developed in an attempt to make the holiday seem older and to strip it of its Civil War origin.
We can have Thanksgiving just fine while being honest about its origin story.
1
That picture, "A Tale Of Two Turkeys".
9
Looking back at the America at the past three years, there is little, for many Americans, to be thankful for (unless one is a white Christian).
We have a "president" who says the KKK and neo-Nazis are some very fine people.
We have a "president" who advocates prison for independent journalists.
We have a "president" who has shoved thousands of Hispanic infants and children into cages, on U.S. soil, with no plans of ever returning them to their families.
We have a "president" who is an avowed racist, and would do anything he possibly could to rid this country of anyone who isn't white and Christian (except his son-in-law and Stephen Miller).
We have a "president" who is a known felon, who uses the Justice Department as his own personal legal office, and who knows that his base does not care what crimes he commits.
And, we have his sixty million rabid, AK-47 toting worshippers, who will do literally anything he asks of them. And this is why he will stay in power indefinitely. He will leave at a time of his choosing, and not a day before.
My spouse's family are Holocaust survivors. My family survived the Armenian Genocide. By late 2017, our family understood exactly what we were seeing in this country, and found a home outside the U.S.
So yes, my family has a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. We feel so much safer in our adopted country than we did when we left the country of our birth. And every month since then has proven our decision a sound one.
59
Because he's a turkey?
4
How did they miss the progressives' War on Halloween?
11
@John Decker They're staging a war on what used to be Brooklyn Day. It's now Brooklyn-Queens Day.
1
@John Decker Great comment!
1
@John Decker
The War on Halloween has been going on for some time. Didn't you know it's the Satanists' way of corrupting our youth? It's all of a piece with Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings.
Note: sarcasm alert.
1
Thankful for Krugman, Friedman, Blow, Dowd, Brooks, Collins, Edsall, etc. etc. Thankful for good people speaking out their truth. No truth is the 'only' one, but we must strive to share our own visions and perspectives.
Trump is a madman carnival barker; taught by the disgraced lawyer Roy Cohn. Trump learned how to lie and just keep telling the lie. Nothing matters, except personal, material gain.
Well, good riddance. This cancer on America is going down, and taking his henchmen and women with him. He's not just a braggart, bully, liar, shyster, draft-dodging POW-maligning, fake Christian, traitorous, fake Christian, misogynist, narcissist; no, he's also America's leader. Wow. Our greatest shame.
Be thankful. Give thanks. Love each other. Love America and this world. Work to help stop climatic catastrophe. Work to stop the criminal concentrations of wealth, income, property and power. Do something for the common good, for the more perfect Union, for honor and duty and this sacred place.
I'm thankful this planet is so beautiful and wondrous. I'm thankful that most people are truly good at heart. And, I'm thankful that we indeed have the heart to turn this ship around and travel towards a more humble and compassionate and holy place.
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"Better angels"? Not according to Charles Blow (on this same NYT page). According to Charles, it celebrates racism, colonialism, imperialism, and all the other bad isms. Charles would doubtless argue that Trump should love Thanksgiving. You can't both be right. So which is it?
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Mmmm, which one in the picture is most presidential..........i know who id vote for.
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Thank you, Professor! There are times when we need to remember and reflect.
2
There’s no set of rules on why we should observe the Thanksgiving holiday, and so we celebrate in whatever manner we wish, and assign whatever meaning we choose. It’s within our freedoms to do so. But if there’s a common theme to Thanksgiving, it’s displaying empathy for others, and that’s an ability Mr. Trump doesn’t have.
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"Thanksgiving is, in short, a truly American holiday."
Yet the Wikipedia entry for Canadian Thanksgiving says: "According to some historians, the first celebration of Thanksgiving in North America occurred during the 1578 voyage of Martin Frobisher from England, in search of the Northwest Passage."
Different branches of a harvest festival that originated in Europe? Quite likely.
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"It’s true that Trump is an unusually unpopular president; but his approval rating, at around 40 percent or a bit more, is if anything higher than the approval Viktor Orban commanded as he dismantled Hungary’s democracy."
That's because it matters less how popular a president is than how much power he has in the form of allies.
When you have power, you can do what Trump did: gain control of the DOJ with a Roy Cohn type fixer at the helm; enjoy majority rule in the senate, which is far more important than the house for confirmations, stonewalling legislation, approving cabinet appointments, and avoiding impeachment.
He doesn't even have to win the popular vote: just that relic of pre-emancipation America, the Electoral College.
so yes, Trump can do as he pleases because of his stranglehold over his voters. and that won't change, regardless of how he feels about the American values that undergoes Thanksgiving.
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@ChristineMcM
This Thanksgiving, my most fervent prayer resides in the hope that SCOTUS upholds the law. The McGahn decision lays it out. Nothing in the Constitution allows a President to "kneecap" Congressional oversight; and the President is NOT a King.
Let us pray that this tainted Court still believes in America.
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@ChristineMcM
Something interesting and ignored by Krugman is that among likely voters, Trump's approval has been slightly better than Obama's for the last 2.5 years, according to Rasmussen.
Just as Republicans were shocked when Clinton and Obama were re-elected, Democrats are going to be stunned in 2020.
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@ebmem
Rasmussen's results have consistently been right-leaning compared to other polls. But go ahead, choose your favorite.
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I read the comments and I read the divergence of opinions in the op-eds. "Thanksgiving has a bad history"/"Thanksgiving was Kumbaya".
However it began, Thanksgiving today is indeed a popular, secular holiday where we celebrate family, friends, generosity and gratitude.
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Hardly a secular holiday. While the rest of us are giving thanks to God, who are you thanking?
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@Lisa
The Earth Mother who provided the buffalo and potatoes we are (sparingly) eating today, in thanks for having enough good and nourishing food year-round. (Pot roasts always taste better the next day, we will enjoy ours all weekend !)
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@Beppo
In reply to Lisa who says, "...Hardly a secular holiday. While the rest of us are giving thanks to God, who are you thanking?"
I call it secular because it's not claimed by any religion and there are no religious requirements.
I've got a large list of all the friends, relatives and teachers to whom I'm enormously grateful. I make a point of letting them know on Thanksgiving.
Thanks for asking!
Beppo
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In His mind, He has nothing to be grateful for. He’s done it ALL Himself, just a modest loan from his Father. If he’s the very definition of a successful “ Businessman “ , then I’m a retired swimsuit Model. And trust me, I’m not.
Seriously.
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@Phyliss Dalmatian
Exactly.
The first and last best business deal that Trump made was his ' choice' of New York City real estate baron daddy to inherit 295 streams of income from that shielded him from the consequences of being the worst losing single businessman in America over a ten year period.
Trump's collusion with Vladimir Putin is a distant but persistent second existential threat to the survival of our republic.
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@Phyliss Dalmatian So true! And can you imagine Trump in charge of saying the Thanksgiving “grace” which even many secular people like to observe for this special family meal. He’d be pointing out to America and the entire world how thankful we should be that (despite enormous financial sacrifice) he agreed to be our president.
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Thanksgiving is notable as one of the few times European settlers were nice to Native Americans. I'd expect radical left culture warriors to leave this one day alone and concentrate on other holidays like Columbus Day, though this particular food fight was started by the right-wing ones.
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I think that this defines Trump and the GOP far better. It's something that Mencken is supposed to have said. “Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.” Substitute conservatism for puritanism and you've got it.
Trump and his band of economic elites ought to be thankful for one thing. Americans haven't run screaming from the country. We might or we might/should vote them out of office before they do more damage.
11/28/2019 5:28pm first submit
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@hen3ry In no possible way could Donald Trump be considered a Puritan, even as an analogy.
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@Andrew, I did say substitute conservatism for puritanism.
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@Andrew
Trump does share some similarities to the Puritans:
no quarter for “heretics” I.e. those who dissent
An obsession about witches
and
Wealth as a determination of divine worth
5
Beautiful words, "Thanksgiving is, in short, a truly American holiday ... openness to people who look or act differently, religious tolerance, sympathy for the persecuted, belief in human equality."
But CERTAINLY NOT according to Charles Blow, "But I’ve come to believe that is how America would have it if it had its druthers: We would be blissfully blind, living in a soft world bleached of hard truth. I can no longer abide that."
What we finid in the New York Times editorial section are folks who know everything and understand nothing. Thanksgiving is our American foundation myth. In this sense, a myth is not a lie. It is our best attempt to understand the inexplicable. When we seek to understand our fellow human beings by an examination of what passes for objective facts is when we stumble into error.
To Mr. Krugman and Mr. Blow, please guys, enjoy your Thanksgiving!
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Thankfully Trump and company are limited in their bad behavior because of our great democracy, and with any luck by this time next year we’ll be celebrating and thankful that we are finished with him and many of his accomplices in the GOP.
Happy Thanksgiving!
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Amen to that!
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@Bronx Jon
I like your optimism!
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@Bronx Jon
I won't be satisfied until Trump and Barr are in jail, and preferably Pence, Pompeo, Rohrabacher, McConnell, and anyone who took Russian subversion money (not exclusive of the above list).
The fact that the U.S. interferes in elections all over the globe does not justify selling out our Constitution.
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Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday, for the reasons you listed, Paul. There have been other periods when we were inspired, including the much maligned (by the South) Reconstruction, and both Roosevelt Administrations.
We might be on the cusp of another awakening. Our President has mocked everything we stand for, while bowlderizing love, equality, and justice.
His legacy, and that of his utterly corrupt Party, could be a new awakening, after we banish the President to jail or Trump Tower. We would not have achieved that with Hillary, and cannot with Biden. Let’s look into our hearts, and become the country we could have been.
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@Mike Roddy the #me too movement and the women's march after trump's election would not have happened if hillary won. trump's election shook women's conscience like nothing before it. and we are just begining to see the results.
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It would be tough to be a conservative. They can't find any joy in life. They have to constantly make up reasons to whine and complain. The way they manufactured the war on Thanksgiving was their classic. Start a rumor, report the rumor on Fox and then have Trump pick it up in his tweets as fact. It might be funny if it weren't so sad and dangerous.
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@Irving Nusbaum
You left out, that while MSNBC has liberal hosts trying to skewer the birther King supporters, FOX has ersatz conservatives host only Birther King supporters who, surprise, confirm all of your talking points.
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@Irving Nusbaum Hahaa...that's right, fox has "panels" well stocked with a far right, but handsome nutcase, and a goofy looking centrist who is supposed to represent the "left" - sort of like Hannity and Colmes. What a duo.
Hey, did you hear trump is giving thanks to himself for how *powerful* he has made this country.
Think about it. A multi-bankrupted swindler who grabs female private parts, evades paying his fair share of taxes, evades the draft by faking an ailment (those awful bone spurs), cheats on all his wives and girlfriends, cheats contractors, colludes with foreign governments to keep him in power.
What a guy to "shock" us again in 2020. But you may be right. I'm sure he's right now cooking up some backroom deals with China to make Mayor Pete, Biden, Warren, Sanders all look like criminals with pending investigations into their foreign business dealings.
He simply can't lose the next election, seeing that he will be facing charges of tax fraud in New York.
Heckuva guy that donnie.
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@Teddi
Trump is not a conservative, he’s a populist who simply follows the roar of the crowd. He has much more in common with Hugo Chavez than Ronald Reagan.
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