There was a time when it was considered impolite — nay inappropriate — to discuss politics in polite company. Along with religion and money, the belief was that such sensitive and potentially combustible topics be reserved for smaller, or perhaps more select, groups of people. Of course, needless to say that at The White Lotus — the resort where everything, including sodomy, salacity and the odd sprinkle of murder abounds — such social conventions of avoiding political discourse don't apply. After all, what rules do apply to this stable of larger-than-life and entirely unhinged characters?
The third episode of the third season of The White Lotus has parlayed yet another medley of MAGA-lomaniacs to our lives, three of which have become the subject of opines en masse since we checked in to the resort's Thai branch, but did we see foresee a Donald Trump namecheck in the script of the most recent series? Not exactly, yet that's precisely what came to be in the most recent third episode, titled The Meaning of Dreams. While bemoaning what she understands as the male centricity of religion, Kate (Leslie Bibb) posits that she's a woman, and she gets a lot out of going to church. She loves the people, it's very moving, didn't you know?
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'The people are more conservative than LA people, or New York,' Kate says pointedly, looking at her two friends, who inhabit the famously more liberal bi-coastal enclaves. Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan) and Laurie (Carrie Coon) begin their probing. They want to know whether that's uncomfortable for Kate who, they assume is liberal-leaning like them. Kate appears confused. 'Why would it be uncomfortable?,' she asks. 'I don't know, if I was surrounded by a load of Texans who voted for Trump I'd feel a little alienated,' Jaclyn says. The back and forth continues until it becomes clear that Kate (who admittedly isn't a Republican but is an independent) is conservative leaning. Her friends, who later in the episode privately dissect their friend's political inclinations, are horrified. The exchange is painful to watch because there are varying shades of truth in its tenor, which begs the question: can you ever truly be friends with those who have differing political opinions to your own?
I'd argue that it's of paramount importance that we actively pursue friends that are different to us. I have American friends who, aged 30, voted for Donald Trump for various different reasons. One of them described herself to me as a 'secret' Trump voter, given the liberal New York City media bubble she inhabits. Older American family friends also voted for Donald Trump, more openly so. Theirs were Republican votes that felt less stigmatised among their peers. I similarly had friends who have voted for UKIP and who voted 'Leave' in the referendum on EU membership. In 2019, Ellen DeGeneres received criticism for her friendship with former Republican president George W Bush. We, like Jaclyn and Laurie, have been conditioned to believe that right-wing is bad, and left-wing is good, but in viewing politics through such a narrow lens, we remove the essential nuances that we must apply to our understanding of the world. We learned that these three friends who have checked in to The White Lotus have been friends since school, and it's that history that bounds them, not their political inclinations.
Our collective aim, if ever the impolite subject of politics does rear its ugly head, ought to be that we should be curious, not judgemental. The absence of a belief in another that you might have, doesn't mean that person's worth depreciates, something Jaclyn and Laurie – and self-confessed 'decent' person Victoria Ratliff (Parker Posey) too — would do well to remember.
The episode closes with Kate waking in the middle of the night to the hushed tones of her two friends whispering about her. 'I mean Trump? I mean, are you insane?,' Jaclyn jokes, before Laurie remarks how 'self-defeating' it is. The pair agree that they're both 'in shock.'
It is easier than ever to exist today in a siloed world, both virtually and in reality, that mirrors your own. We are afforded the ability of selecting the news we consume, the facts we want to believe, and the opinions we choose to absorb. Yet this selectivity is doing nothing to mend the harsh polarities of politics. The problem is that, in order to find a solution to simmering political tensions, a society needs cohesion. It needs to foster an environment in which conversations are enabled and encouraged to flourish with inquisition and curiosity at their core. Kate might now love going to Church and being surrounded by conservatives in her new home of Austin, Texas, but until we (Laurie and Jaclyn included) learn to find common ground with all of our loved ones — no matter their political persuasion — we're all missing the point.
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Naomi May is a seasoned culture journalist and editor with over ten years’ worth of experience in shaping stories and building digital communities. After graduating with a First Class Honours from City University's prestigious Journalism course, Naomi joined the Evening Standard, where she worked across both the newspaper and website. She is now the Digital Editor at ELLE Magazine and has written features for the likes of The Guardian, Vogue, Vice and Refinery29, among many others. Naomi is also the host of the ELLE Collective book club.
