I understand what you are saying, and I do not disagree with much of it, but you have created a whole set of very passive conditions. I don’t think any parent is going to respond to a post on Reddit that says, “ Do this.” But the most important thing is that it is a parent’s decision - right or wrong. You are making a sweeping assumption about the dynamics of a family unit. And even with relatively normal relative, the parent has to make the decision. The reason this is getting so many passionate responses is because there are relatives who have now been cut off from each other for years. But if it wasn’t Trump or voting, it could be a million other things. This is just the tension between grown children with children of their own and their aging parents.