Who else here is in a relationship with their political opposite?

I've posted about my relationship here before, and read about people dating conservatives/Republicans, but I wanted to see how many other people are in this situation. Has it caused a lot of tension in the relationship, or are the political discussions pretty civil?

When Chimpy began campaigning in 1999, she couldn't understand why I was so pissed off. She didn't have any problem with Poppy's administration and couldn't imagine Junior doing any worse.

The reasons we split up had nothing to do with partisan politics. In favct when it got down to reality, we didn't have that many differences in what we believed, only in how to bring it about, unfortunately.

But she admitted to me last year that she didn't vote for the Monkey in 2004 and that she no longer calls herself a Republican :)

Now if she only had an epiphany like that in some other areas.......

..since it's really about relationships more than politics itself.

do you want me to smack somebody around for you? I'll do it. Anything for my campaign manager. :)

n/t

:)

No, seriously, that's pretty stupid to say, this is a message board. It's not meant to be all nice and tidy. People post and we all have to live with it. If you don't like a post then ignore it. Duh! You shouldn't mind your French on something like that. Whip some ass! I'm sure he deserved it.

I actually like all your posts. Even before we became buddies. :)

And I like all of your posts too :)

:)

Swoon :)

:)

after two years of therapy I was able to walk again. We had gotten in an argument about the Bush-Gore election. I said that I believe Gore won, and that I thought Bush would start an unnecessary military conflict, lose millions of jobs, look like an ass in front of the whole world and wreck our economy. She didn't like that very much. Truth hurts I guess. That still doesn't take away those two years I spent in a wheelchair though.

No, I'm just kidding. I never had a gf who was Republican. Mainly because the scenario I just described would probably happen, lol.

I have a good friend who is Republican, or calls himself one mainly he is just ignorant, and it's strained our friendship a lot. So I imagine it would really be bad if two people were dating and they had polar opposite beliefs.

But, if I ever were to, THIS would be the post that made me do it.

That was probably the funniest post I've ever read.

Congrats! I'm a tough audience.

I guess if anybody could do it, it would be me. :)

Glad you liked it. :)

But he's not a hostile, aggressive radical like many are. My husband is unlearned, but teachable. He already hates the patriot acts since I enlightened him; he fought in war to protect our freedoms, and opposes anything that jeopardizes them, (as the patriot act farce does). He's actually a living example of how brainwashed many citizens are, believing anything they hear without investigating for themselves. He was clueless about our gvt., but lately the news has reported and confirmed everything I've told him about the corruption, and I doubt he will remain a Republican much longer...
I don't even believe in trying to change people, I prefer they see and learn for themselves. I just like to raise awareness and let the individual decide.
PEACE!

You are so smart and goood. You are doing it right. Wish I was more like you.

I need to keep love in my heart and its hard, cause its really getting bad all over. This is the worst time of my life in many respects and for the first time these horrible policies and hurting people all around me. Its hard not to be angry.

How could your repect them in the morning
Or any other time?

We've been married 16 years, and honestly, these past two years or so are the first that politics has even been an issue in our relationship. And when I say 'issue,' it's been few and far between.

I mostly experienced the differences when discussing politics broadly and trying to define terms like 'capitalism,' 'fascism' and 'totalitarianism' for example. My SO gets really pissed if I'm loose with my terminology, if I start to generalize too much, or if I'm sounding too much like a conspiracy nut, so I save a lot of those discussions for my really liberal friends. I don't know if it's a personality trait or what, but it seems really important to most of my Republican friends that the politics be discussed 'rationally' without a lot of hyperbole. It's hard to put into words what I'm trying to say, but it has to do with the framing of the argument.

The biggest fight we got into was on the topic of capitalism, and I just couldn't put into words what I really wanted to say. It came close to one of those stupid rants you hear from the Bush bots calling the liberals 'pinko commies.' I was furious. Later, I collected my thoughts, did some re-reading of the book that brought me into the discussion (I think it was Robert Reich) and we had a heart to heart that turned out very well--with both of us being better able to discuss where we were coming from with our thoughts and ideas without feeling so defensive. The focus on the label thing was really at issue in that argument--Republican v. Dem.

Speaking of labels, that too, was an interesting thing in our household. One car had a DU & 'Kerry-Edwards' sign, and the other car had a 'Republicans for Kerry' bumper sticker.

Thankfully, my spouse never was a Bush supporter (I or II), and really, is much more liberal than I am in many ways, and less tolerant of the fanatical religiosity that has consumed the GOP than I. It's interesting because we both have some Libertarian ideas (get government out of our lives), which, I, being less political, wasn't even aware of until I started reading more about those political compass tests. Ironically, we score similarly on those, too. Mostly, we both feel that the Republican Party has changed so much that it doesn't even represent the traditional values that it once held, that my spouse considers still in high regard (smaller government, fiscal concerns, etc.) We've been to more Democratic party meetings in the last two years together than any political events in all of our years together!

and as has been mentioned in other posts, although our political differences were sometimes great they never an issue in our marriage.

My husband voted for Bush 41, was satisfied with him as prez until his administration prevented Stormin' Norman from taking out Saddam in the first Gulf War, so hubs voted for Ross Perot in '92 (protest vote - refused to vote for Bush 41 again and he'd be damned before he voted for Democrat Bill Clinton). However, over time hubs grew happy with Clinton's presidency so... drumroll please ... voted for Democratic incumbent Clinton in '96, an absolute first for hubby. He was growing and developing politically, and I praised him, praised him, praised him for his insight. All was well until Monicagate and the impeachment... hubs thought the former ridiculous and the latter an outrage, but still considered himself a Repub although he disagreed with damn near all of the GOP House and Senate regarding the impeachment travesty.

Along came election year 2000, and hubby was a John McCain supporter all the way, baby. Hubby's family are Big Time Repubs in their home state so much family campaigning and politicking ensued, only to have McCain go down in stinging defeat to George W Bush in the South Carolina primary. It was a bitter disappointment for hubster's entire clan. When Rove's odious push polling was revealed (convincing ignorant, bigoted voters that McCain fathered an out-of-wedlock black child, that his wife was a drug addict and that McCain himself was a traitor in Vietnam), this is what sent hubs completely over the edge. From that moment forward, my husband the loyal moderate Republican has despised the hell out of the Bushies. He voted for Al Gore, and the stolen election was the final nail in the coffin... in his opinion, the presidency of George W Bush was and is illegitimate, incompetent, evil and the blackest mark on the face of American politics. He is still a registered Republican although he acknowledges to his complete frustration that his party has been hijacked by brown-shirted fascist thugs.

but did you get your screen name from the song "Peace Frog" by The Doors?

:)

Well done, bill. :hi:

:)

One of my favorite songs. :)

them way to much.

Though in our first election together, he voted for Bill Clinton.
He now claims that was a mistake.

He's not very gung ho for his party, he thinks Bush is an idiot, and I suspect he either voted for Kerry or abstained last Nov. He mostly thinks all politicians are bad, but if you asked him he'd tell you he's a Repub.

We have had some bad fights about it -- the 2000 election was particularly painful -- but it's gotten better. He respects that I'm actively involved, and I don't try to pull him in anymore.

I'm raising our kids to be good liberals, also.

now. hated the impeachment. hated what happened in 2000 to gore in florida. but the war is what pushed him over. he had never been politically obsessed but when it came to deaths on both sides he started researching. not to mention all i was telling him. he watched the campaigning of 2004 and wanted edwards, but grew to like kerry and edwards ticket. was really excited about some of kerrys plan, small business especially, health care and education

night of election, he though repug stole it.

he will never vote repug pres again. is an independent.

Like, REALLY tolerant. Of my feminism, of my intense dislike for organized religion, of everything. I'm quite radical.

He's a registered Dem, but supports Bush.

My husband, when I met him, was politically neutral, simply because he didn't know what was what and didn't pay much attention but he was raised in a liberal family. The one thing though, he HATED GWB.

Now he's almost more left-leaning than I am. I think back to the couple of Repugs I dated and think now how I wouldn't be able to even speak to them in a civil manner anymore.

My brother-in-law is also a Repug. His wife (my husband's sister) is not. She figures her vote "cancels his out". My husband's entire family is very staunchly Democratic.

I don't talk politics with my BIL and thought we are civil, I must admit it's the single thing that keeps me from having any respect for him. He seems like a really nice, sweet guy. I don't know what retarded brain cells make him a Repug but I don't want to go into it with him because if I do, I will certainly alienate him. How he could be so smart (he's a lawyer, and yes that's another strike against him) but so stupid at the same time I don't know. I just try not to think about it.

All I know is that I certainly wouldn't have married the man myself.