A politics of thankfulness

America has a lot to be grateful for. We must not forget it.

Giving thanks.
(Image credit: Rawpixel Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo)

Families all over America today will sit down together and give thanks. The meal may take place in a mansion or a soup kitchen; the family in question may be a broad, expansive net or a tattered remnant. But regardless of circumstances, we are enjoined, at this season, to express gratitude.

It's something we don't hear much of in our politics these days, which are increasingly rooted in the base emotions of resentment and fear. Partisans on all sides rally the troops by predicting the calamitous consequences of defeat, while the resentful troops, suspicious of being conned, periodically mutiny to follow self-appointed tribunes who, however tainted, promise total victory.

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Noah Millman

Noah Millman is a screenwriter and filmmaker, a political columnist and a critic. From 2012 through 2017 he was a senior editor and featured blogger at The American Conservative. His work has also appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Politico, USA Today, The New Republic, The Weekly Standard, Foreign Policy, Modern Age, First Things, and the Jewish Review of Books, among other publications. Noah lives in Brooklyn with his wife and son.