Correspondent Iida Tikka went to the American family to follow the debate about Finland’s NATO membership, support for Ukraine and Trump’s eligibility for the presidency.
ATLANTA, GEORGIA. In Atlanta Granada there are sometimes heated discussions in the family. The family is divided, just like the United States as a whole.
Political polarization has largely separated Democrats and Republicans into their own bubbles. Encounters between those who think differently are increasingly rare.
Party disputes have also torn families apart: for example, after the 2021 Congress attack, children reported to the police their parents who had participated in the attack.
Fortunately, the Granade family has not broken up, but rather differences have been turned into strength. The mother of the family by Darlene Reagan different opinions bring new perspectives to the discussion.
But what does the debate look like in practice, and what do the Granades think of Finland’s NATO membership, for example? sat on the family’s sofa to watch the Republicans’ first election debate with the family on Wednesday of last week.
A new family of the upper middle class
The Granades are a fairly standard upper-middle-class Southern family. Father Jim Granade is a dentist and mother Darlene is a dental hygienist. Adult children James Grenade and Corrin Lemons are studying at university.
James’ boyfriend Harrison Knowles studying political science, Corrine’s boyfriend Bryson Beck on the other hand, works for his father’s cable company.
Party positions are divided within the family of the president Donald Trump’s from supporters to true democrats. In the picture below you can see who each is and what political wing they represent.
In this story, we collected four of the most interesting moments from the family’s discussions during the evening. You can see them in the videos below.
The problem above all others: Trump
Eight candidates for the party’s presidential nomination participated in the Republicans’ first election debate on the Fox channel. Admittedly, a significant figure was missing from the debate, namely the former president Donald Trump. He decided to skip the debate, even though he is seeking the nomination.
So Trump wasn’t on stage, but the other Republicans running for the presidential nomination talked a lot about him.
And that’s how the Granades also talked about him on their sofa. The video below shows how a Trump supporter Bryson Beck explaining to others why he still supports Trump. Beck believes that the ruling party, the Democrats, use fraudulent means to stay in power.
Perhaps Finland should not be in NATO
After all, there is one thing that still unites Republicans and Democrats in the United States. It’s foreign policy. Even in the living room of the Granade family, everyone agrees that China is a problem for the United States.
But when the debate turns to Ukraine, there is a rift. In this video, the family discusses whether the United States should support Ukraine – and a little about whether it made sense to accept Finland into NATO.
Hillary Clinton vs. Donald Trump: Who’s to Blame?
Recently, new charges were brought against Trump again, and this time in the Granade family’s hometown of Atlanta. Trump is accused of trying to falsify the election results in Georgia.
According to Bryson Beck, it’s about the Democrats trying to win the next election. Democrats James Granade and Harrison Nelson have a lot to say about that.
What about the Republicans if the women do not care?
Republicans have passed numerous legislative changes in recent years to limit women’s rights, and that has mobilized American women. Republicans’ poor performance in last year’s midterm elections was partly due to women voting more heavily than Democrats.
In the United States, the president cannot interfere with abortion laws. Still, abortion is still a constant topic in the Republicans’ election debate, as well as in the pre-election debate followed by the Granades on Wednesday of last week.
In the last video Darlene Reagan and Corrin Lemons tell what they think about the right to abortion.
Description: Jouni Soikkeli. Surgery: Jouni Soikkeli, Kari Nihti