Me

In case you're wondering, yes, the Schloss-Blog has noticed how divisive America has become and most of it started since Trump entered politics.

It has impacted me and my personal relationships too, let alone my interactions with friends and some relatives, mostly in-laws.

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Eight years ago, when I had a disagreement with friends, relatives, with anyone, over things political, we agreed to disagree, hugged, kissed, shook hands and moved on.

No more.

Some of my longest-standing and closest relationships have dissolved.

My friend Gary, who stood up at my first wedding, lived across the hall from me in grad school. We joked about everything. He called me "Schloss." 

He's no longer in my life.

What I believe are Trump's discriminatory policies and scorching comments that have put people's lives in jeopardy have no space in my world.

Gary thinks Trump next to God. Is Gary racist? Not the Gary I know, or knew. But if he supports Trump then he supports the racism Trump espouses and thinks Trump was fraudulently denied the 2020 election. (Full disclosure, he wasn't.) 

Me and Gary will likely never talk again.

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Same to a lesser degree for me and Steve, a fraternity brother. Not the biggest guy, but a pretty good basketball player. Could dependably hit the open jumper.

Now he goes to bat for Trump, something I'll never do.

We don't exchange comments anymore, via email, text, after having had some intensive exchanges on Facebook, on Facebook Messenger, on anything, although the last time we did was when he notified me of the death of another fraternity brother, a good friend with whom I was part of a six-person suite at school.

You guessed it, a Trump supporter as well.

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I was as close with my friend Keith, with whom I grew up in Brooklyn, as I was with anyone. Since we were 13.

He was a dependable basketball partner and a great receiver in football. Wish he'd gone to UAlbany and joined my frat so I could've had him on the flag football team which I quarterbacked for my fraternity. He would've been the missing piece we needed to get over the top on a pretty-good third-place, flag football team

Now, we rarely talk or communicate. Trump took him to what I think is the dark side. The once friendly banter we grew up exchanging has all but disappeared, despite his living in California and me commuting back and forth between Illinois and Arizona.

Belief in Trump turns disagreement into outright spite, even between the oldest and closest of friends.

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Finally, and there are many more examples, I'll end with my relatives on my wife's side.

I adore them. They are generous to a fault.

We watch football together, exchange generous birthday and Christmas/Hanukkah gifts.

And we can't talk politics. They likely think I'm off my rocker for my political beliefs while I think they perhaps read and believe too many conspiracy theories.

My wife is a true believer and is probably more firmly entrenched in her denial of Trump than I am, his actions and the justice he should get as his trials proceed.

She knows to keep her mouth shut about politics in her family's presence.

The whole thing can but somehow doesn't make gatherings uncomfortable. But political opinions do.

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The bitter truth is that since Trump emerged on the political scene, America is a country of divisiveness and spite. (See Republicans, House of Representatives.)

Friends across the country  have parted ways. Holiday gatherings around Christmas trees or over a Thanksgiving table setting are no longer places where anything goes in conversation.

Please know, if I mentioned you in this piece, or if you think I mentioned you, it wasn't because I don't like you anymore.

It was because I love you and miss the things about our relationships that made them as special as they always were.

And I want them back.

With Trump in the house, claiming fraud and promising militaristic vengeance, that likely won't happen.

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Good night Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Jenni Golz (great to see you).

More Sunday night on my Radio Free Phoenix rock 'n' roll show.