Does anyone get along with conservative/other family members....

I always read things like "Man, I slamdunked my conservative brother-in-law!" or "Totally refuted my conservative second cousins nonsensical views!!" here....I'm wondering if anyone here has conservative or other (libertarian, whatever) family members whom you actually get along with great, and even have good political discussions with (by good, I mean civil, thoughtful, etc).

But I do have some associates and friends who are diametrically opposed to me in terms of my views and are rather to very conservative. Republican and all. It can work - none of them are out-and-out neocon scum.

and it makes for some good, fun arguments. I am going to see John Prine with a couple of conservates. It will be fun

BTW, they are not neo-cons. Dem people I cant handle.


DEMMAN

kids, what car we drive, the schools our kids go to...no, seriously, my father is what I would term a very conservative, liberal and/or a very liberal conservative. In other words, he hates Bush as much as I do but has a wait and see attitude about it...grrrr. He is an intelligent man and we have good discussions, although I will admit they do degenerate to shouting matches at times.

As far as the in-laws, they are (god love'em) redneck, republican, wannabe's and it's impossible to talk intelligently with them about the weather...so we don't talk much...

We avoid talking about politics and don't meet too often.

We try to avoid talking about politics. It seems when we do, though, my conservative family members are the ones that bring it up.

My parents are realllly conservative but in a different way. They came here from korea like 20 years ago and they are blindly conservative because they think bush is such a good christian and stuff.. and that all conservative presidents sofar has been such good christians.
Its freaking me out when dad says stuff like "bush is a honest, religious, guy" etc i mean.. Im a christian too but i cuold never be this brainwashed. argh.. they would do anything just because they think he is such a good christian it makes me puke.


ohwell we get along great cuz its impossible to talk politics with them so we never do it . they just refuse to believe anything bad about him. I swear the tv could show bush killing a baby and they would say it was liberals that faked it.

The upside i guess is that if wed ever get a democratic religious candidate they would vote for him :p

Anyway besides that they are the nicest most loving people i know

I try not to talk politics with my wife (although she was against the war in Iraq), but her step-father knows I'm a lefty, and occasionally tries to bring me out on certain issues. When the invasion, started he asked me more than once if I missed being a tank-crewman and if I would like to be out there, scootin' around the desert, shooting things up. Like a lot of pro-war, rah-rah, kill-kill types, he never served in the military, and thinks it's all just some vivid Technicolor John Wayne fantasy. As a Gulf War vet, I've tried to explain to him how horrible war really is, but I don't think it's taken hold of his brain.

that Rush and crew are underwritten by the neo-con industrialists to ensure that serious debate of political and social issues is impossible. The hate-mongering leaks out of automobile speakers across the nation, and has permeated the brain of small-minded whiners everywhere. As a result, any political statement that doesn't contain "All Hail Lord Bush" triggers aggression through some sort of warped pavlovian reaction.

The answer to your question is: tain't possible.

yella

except only in the vaguest of terms. It's not worth our family relationships to hurt each other unnecessarily.

My brother is fairly conservative. My sister I think, is at least fiscally conservative, and is definitely more socially conservative than I am. But that's tempered by the fact that she was a single mother and moved up the corp ladder thanks to the women's movement.

I save my energy for the fights that truely matter.

edit: They know very well that I'm a democrat.

They actually worked for George McGovern in 1972 and passed that along to their children. My Mother in law is a sweet lady who thinks that all politicians are liars and rogues. She may be right. One of my cousins grew up fatherless, is a lesbian, made the honor roll in High School, now attends college on a scholarship, and is one of the nicest, kindest people one could ever meet. She is a hard core liberal. Somewhat of a dysfunctional family, but a damn good family nonetheless. The repukes may not think so, but who cares?

"It's not worth our family relationships to hurt each other unnecessarily".

Very wise words. My mom, a lifelong Dem, went Repug during the Clinton years, bawled me out for voting for Gore, and has nothing good to say anymore about Dems. After telling her about AWOL's military record, and asking her how she could POSSIBLY vote for a wartime deserter, we no longer discuss politics. It works well for both of us.

My sister and one of my brothers are apolitical, but have listened to me ranting about Shrub long enough to know he's no good. Too bad they don't bother to vote much.

Another one of my brothers and his wife are fundy Christians, and very much anti-Dem. They believe Faux News is fair and balanced. However, they are Christians in the best and truest sense of the word, so out of respect for each other we do not discuss politics. I like them too much to have our relationship soured by politics.

Another bro is retired Air Force (24 years) and I'm guessing he's Repub but I honestly don't know.

Still another bro is married to a conservative Christian, and she's a Repub, but he's a Dem!

I don't know the political leanings of my youngest bro. Dad, rest his soul, was a lifelong Dem and wouldn't have voted Repug if his life depended on it.

I like my family too much to argue politics with them. It's just not worth it to me.

But then again, I don't think any of them are of the Religious Right sect of the GOP, so that makes it easier.

my soon to be wife and her family are all Republicans as well and we enjoy each other's company and can have civil discussions about religion, politics, what have you and still leave at the end of the day ready to see each other again.

Furthermore, my relatives and in-laws are generous, kind hearted people who help out neighbors and less-fortunates through charity, church work or other means. I know a lot of people on this board would say it's impossible for conservatives or Republicans to be hold any of those traits.

I'm left of them on almost all political or social issues but I wouldn't trade any of them in for some of the liberals I know through People for the American Way, NOW or other organizations I've volunteered for.

To be honest, most of the volunteers (as opposed to staff) at some of those organizations have been some of the nastiest, misanthropic and miserable people I've ever met.

If someone starts rubbing their politics, religion, etc. in my face and won't accept a change of subject, I change the subject, tune them out and talk to someone else, or walk away.

There are a lot of things in life that matter more to me than someone's politics. Honesty, integrity, intelligence, sense of humor, shared experiences, etc. take precedence unless the person is an annoying zealot.

He's been good to me, plus he loves to argue with my sister and I about politics, even though he knows he'll never change our minds. I'm going to write a book about him someday, because he really is an amazing person who has a very interesting life story. He invented the Camloc ratchet wrench, among other things, and came to this country via Ellis Island.

Dad was a Republican, but not conservative. G'pa (his dad) was more conservative politically (I guess), but he was also a white-collar UAW man (struck @ BayCity, 1937) and would never vote for Repubs. Anyhow, mom, dad and three of the four grandparents are dead, now -- leaving just my aunt (23 year USAF vet, liberal as all hell), my sibs and our demon spawn.
If all aren't as liberal as most posters here (and they aren't), all detest Bush and neo-con politics in general.
Anyhow, mom and dad each had one sister. Neither sister ever had children. Thus, I have no uncles and I have no cousins. That, alone, probably cuts down on the number of potential disagreements. With the in-laws, I hardly ever discuss political stuff -- most would rather talk about the Lions, etc.
John
But I DO have Andy the Right-Wing Republican to help keep my blood pressure up, thank you very much.

My father is an apathetic Republican. He hasn't voted in years, and prefers beyond anything else sitting back and making smart-ass comments about current events, but is most definitely conservative (at the least) in thought. He and my mother have gotten into some good shouting matches during his most recent visit. When he learned myself, my mother and brother all disliked Dubya, he asked, rather surprised, who we'd rather have in the White House - Gore? YES! We replied emphatically. At one point he said to me, "I just don't understand why you people don't like Bush." I cut in and said "Dad, you're outnumbered here so please drop it." He didn't bring it up with me after that.

Well, I've lost my point, but it can be done. Only seeing my Dad twice a year helps, and seeing my Christian fundy-Repub relatives about twice in nine years REALLY helps. Really, imagine how many family feuds would have happened in this world without the weather to talk about!

...tho we fight (argue) all the time. I never let a single thing go by without raising objections and making arguments. My father-in-law (to-be in less than 2 weeks) is the one I argue with most. He says that he respects that I have a strong point of view and that I'm informed and articulate, and pretty much admits to disagreeing with me for reasons that aren't very rational. The other conservatives on that side of the family are pretty much on their way to becoming more moderate, and regret supporting Bush.

There are no conservatives on my side of the family.

:)

Politics is damn important in my life, but I'm not going to allow political differences, or differences of opinions, to come between me and my family.

My friends generally hold the same views that I do, but we do disagree on alot of things. I can peg "conservatives" quite easily, and I tend to gravitate naturally towards people who share my political views.

My family (both direct & in-laws) are normal people. they're conservative and they're liberal. There are things that we totally disagree on, but we both value our relationships enough to not bring up points of contention. We agree on far more than we disagree on, and we KNOW that we disagree so there's no reason to rehash a moot point.

My relationships with my family will always come without political affiliation attached. I see no reason to necessarily 'go off' on someone just because you disagree with them, or they're a rush-bot or whatever. They're family first, and that's much more important than their political beliefs

but not a far right-winger. But we try never to discuss politics. It just gets him totally pissed off. I criticize Bush and he launches into a Clinton tirade (much to my chagrin). So typical of right wingers to continually bring up Clinton, even though that's not what we're discussing.

If politics isnt the subject than things will be a ok. I swear I actually feel that they are even less Catholic than me and I call myself Catholic in name only. When I said that rape was a good reason if any to have an abortion they said she shouldnt be dressing like a slut my jaw dropped. When they say that all humans were originally Catholic it dropped again. I agree with my agonstic friend although I am Christian man did create religion. My one friend supposely tries to convert people it freaks me out. I am so glad my other two friends both dems and not that religious one agnostic and the other christian likely didnt go crazy. I even got one of the nuts to admit that forcing religion on a growing up kid is like propaganda. The sad thing is that hes grade smart and knows history and all he knew damn well that the slaves werent migrants. They are both poorer than I yet I swear my dead great great great grandfather was probably more enlightened. I call my self CINO even though I defend the church when I have to yet I think I am a better Catholic. It is so hard sometimes yes these are the two from last night that I mentioned and how I felt bad. No conservative relatives and actually it was Catholic relatives my grandparents whos enlightenment and genuine Christian love is why I am a Christian today yet with Agonstic tendicies. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for showing me true Catholicism the kind that the pope would like that is about compassion, love, and charity,