CODDLING OF THE AMERICAN MIND
Yes: Is It Time to Stop Snubbing Your Right-Wing Family?
Michael Ziffra, MD
August 7, 2025

Is it time to stop snubbing your right-wing family? That’s what a recent New York Times essay asks. It was penned by David Litt, a former speechwriter for President Barack Obama, who characterizes his political leanings as left-of-center. Litt relates his experience of deciding several years ago to shun his brother-in-law Matt, due to a variety of fundamental political disagreements. The issue that prompted the rift involved Matt’s decision to not get the COVID vaccine, but Litt’s differences with his brother-in-law continue far beyond one issue. The two men clearly have very different worldviews and belief systems. Litt says they stand “on opposite sides of a cultural civil war.”…Litt believed that the ostracism would force Matt to see the error of his ways — to not only adopt Litt’s views on the COVID vaccine, but to also abandon his other right-wing views. READ MORE