As usual now, much of the mainstream media spent Thanksgiving and the days leading up to the holiday exploiting the opportunity to bash the tradition, the holiday, and the United States. There was special urgency this time: the negative emphasis on the unique American holiday was galvanized by the anti-Jewish/anti-Israel/pro-Hamas narrative a disturbing proportion of the American Left has embraced in its opposition of Israel defending its right to exist.

“De-colonization” is the 2023 buzzword. “Native Americans=blacks, Palestinians, and other victims whites and the United States. And, again as usual, we were told that it was our duty to ruin a warm, family-oriented, non-partisan tradition by using it to harangue other family members about the evils of Israel, the Supreme Court, Republicans and Donald Trump.

The Left’s growing anti-Thanksgiving tradition also seemed to gain intensity because of the widespread panic over polls showing Trump increasing his lead in voter support over the President as the 2024 election gets closer. Here’s a nice, unbiased cartoon from the Boston Globe, for example, simultaneously equating Trump with those evil colonizing Pilgrims and the turkey with foolish Americans who don’t know enough to avoid voting for a dangerous leader:

It was called “the Last Thanksgiving.” I really question this strategy. The Left is gambling that being the party of anti-Americanism is a winning approach. In fact, they are somehow turning Donald Trump into Ronald Reagan, the leader who saw the U.S. as a “shining city on the hill.” That seems especially foolish framing when Biden’s weak Presidency is already reminiscent of Jimmy Carter’s, complete with American hostages being held by radical Islamist terrorists. Good plan!

Here are some highlights of the anti-Thanksgiving craziness:

• The Marxist publication “The Nation” pointed readers to an article urging Americans to reject the holiday as a symbol of “colonization” and “racism.” This is impressive “it isn’t what it is” sleight-of-mind: the iconic joint Pilgrims and Indian tribe feast is much easier to see as a symbol of diversity and inclusion, the much-loved fads of the current era.  Never mind: in his article headlined,  “Should America Keep Celebrating Thanksgiving?” the Native American author (His people are exactly like the Palestinians, you see, except that they aren’t) wrote, “For many Americans, the image of Thanksgiving is one of supposed unity: the gathering of ‘Pilgrims and Indians’ in a harmonious feast. But this version obscures the harsh truth, one steeped in colonialism, violence, and misrepresentation. By exploring the Indigenous perspective on Thanksgiving, we can not only discern some of the nuances of decolonization but gain a deeper understanding of American history.”

  The Nation used the piece to advocate changing Thanksgiving to “Truthsgiving” (catchy!) which is mordantly hilarious given the current progressive movement’s increasingly shaky relationship to reality.

•  Newsweek published an article by Jason Nichols with the headline “Decolonize Thanksgiving” arguing that “truth should triumph over nationalistic narratives. And the truth about Thanksgiving should be learned by all Americans, as it is a part of our complicated history of savage betrayal and removal of indigenous people and the colonization of their land.” Nichols is a full-time lecturer in the African American Studies department at the University of Maryland, College Park, in other words, a paid anti-American propagandist. He continued,  “Thanksgiving is a wonderful time to spend with family and friends, but we owe it to our indigenous forefathers to know its history…even if the initial feast was dedicated to peace, the settlers decimated the Wampanoag and other New England indigenous groups soon after through war and disease.”

• MSNBC, of course, was saturated by anti-Thanksgiving, evil America gravy. MSNBC’s Joy Reid, whom no reputable news organization would tolerate, began her holiday show by announcing that it was  “important to unpack the myth of Thanksgiving. It is a holiday riddled with historical inaccuracies.” (Pssst, Joy…Holidays are about what we choose to celebrate and what the holiday symbolizes. Complaining about “inaccuracies” is a cheap “gotcha!” trick. Off the top of my head, it’s easy to see Christmas, the Fourth of July, Valentine’s Day, Martin Luther King’s birthday and Juneteenth as similarly “riddled with inaccuracies.” So what? ) “We are a country founded on violence. Our birth was violent,” Reid concluded. “We are a country that chooses violence over and over again. There is no facet of the mark in society untouched by it.”

The most absurd linkage between Thanksgiving and the whole basket of leftist hobby-horses, however, occurred when ten lunatic anti-Israel protesters briefly halted New York City’s Thanksgiving’s Day Parade by gluing themselves to 6th Avenue. They wore fake-blood covered jumpsuits with the words “colonialism” and “racism” on them. Like most show-boating protests, this accomplished nothing other than inconveniencing people who has nothing to do with the object of their obnoxious stunt.

Take it, Waco Kid!