Anybody hold the opposite political stance of your spouse/girlfriend?

jkarolyi · 10-30-2005, 09:27 PM

My girlfriend is a southern California raised, NPR listening, left-wing neo-communist and I lean *slightly* right of center.

She and I had a discussion about Iran having nuclear weapons right before Ahmadinejad made his call for wiping out the USA and Israel. I advocated sanctions, and if that didn't work, a strike on their nuclear facilities.

She said: "We can't deny Iran nuclear weapons when the US has so many of them. If we get rid of our weapons they won't want any either". ARGHHH!!! After the nutjob made his comments she didn't want to talk about the subject any more. Which basically means I was right.

Needless to say, we connect well on many other things in spite of our politics. We've only been dating a few months, and get along great otherwise and understand each other well.

How do you guys handle this? Avoid politics altogether? We talked about trying that, but it's a big part of who we are. We don't take political disagreements personally, but we both find it frustrating when we can't understand each other's political perspectives. Any advice appreciated.

speeder · speeder's Garage

Keep banging away and maybe we will wind up w/ 2 more rational pragmatists in L.A., ie. each of you moves in the direction of each other and political sanity.

Mulhollanddose · 10-30-2005, 11:14 PM

The good news is a high percentage of relationships that engage in premarital sex fail...That said, you may want to find where you agree politically and then work back through the myths she THINKS she believes and destroy them one at a time.

- Roe never had an abortion, Republicans think abortion should be a states' rights issue and the Founding Fathers warned against judicial tyranny (writing law from the bench), abortion hurts women psycologically and physically...The founder of Planned Parenthood was a racist who saw black folks as a plague.

- Republicans freed the slaves, passed Civil Rights Act, and the Democrats were the party of segregation. The Democrat party has a KKK member as a Senior Senator.

- The war on poverty has been a failure, in fact has created more poverty and dependence.

- Hitler was a socialist and shared many philosophical tenets with the Democrat party.

- FDR had concentration camps for the Japanese and had communist spies working for his Administration.

- Joe McCarthy was right.

- Democrats are more corrupt than Republicans have ever been.

- AIDS kills Democrats and so does abortion.

gavinlit · 10-31-2005, 02:10 AM

Mul, have you ever noticed that a penis only has one eye? And no brain in it's head? I read some of your posts (most of them actually) and I can't help but be struck by the similarities.

David · David's Garage

I'm a liberal Democrat (unless there's a good independent or libertarian candidate) and my wife claims to be Republican. I say claims because most of her political views sure seem liberal to me. I suspect it's another case of parental brain washing.

I think a more interesting question is: "How many people share different political and religious views than their parents?"

VINMAN · 10-31-2005, 04:57 AM

I'm a right wing ultra conservative, my wife is totally oblivious to politics and couldnt give two sh*%s about anything that has to do with it. As long as she has enough shoes, shes happy.

legion · 10-31-2005, 05:08 AM

Isn't James Carville's wife a Republican? I can't imagine how that works.

widebody911 · widebody911's Garage

Quote:

Originally posted by Mulhollanddose
Hitler was a socialist and shared many philosophical tenets with the Democrat party.

Bush is 10 times more Fascist than any Democrat could be considered socialist.

bryanthompson · bryanthompson's Garage

I have no idea what you guys are talking about, I'm a moderate.

BlueSkyJaunte · 10-31-2005, 07:12 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Mulhollanddose
blather froth babble...

Sigh. Welcome to my ignore list, finally. You join such luminaries as purrybonker and LynnsABCs. How's it feel to be in such company?

widebody911 · widebody911's Garage

Had a g/f last summer that was a staunch Republican. We tried to discuss politics, but her actual knowlege on the issues wasn't any deeper than Limbaugh/O'Reilly sound bits, ie "We invaded Iraq because they hate us for our freedom."

masraum · 10-31-2005, 07:41 AM

Well, you know. I have to say that some of the things in Mul's post are crap. Amazingly so actually.

I've brought my wife more in my direction over time, but mostly I just try to avoid politics.

There's nothing wrong with people disagreeing on politics, but that shouldn't necessarily mean that you can't be around them.

Yep, your girlfriend seems a bit naive.

legion · 10-31-2005, 07:47 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by widebody911
Had a g/f last summer that was a staunch Republican. We tried to discuss politics, but her actual knowlege on the issues wasn't any deeper than Limbaugh/O'Reilly sound bits, ie "We invaded Iraq because they hate us for our freedom."

Funny, I dated a girl in college who was a pseudo-hippie (I'm not convinced there is any such thing as a real hippie). She'd continually go off about the "evil corporations" and how nearly everything "ruined the environment". Which would of course lead in to tirade about some big government and/or corporate conspiracy.

I've caught up with her since and she pretty much fried her brain on LSD and doesn't have the mental capacity to hold down a job waitressing.

Racerbvd · Racerbvd's Garage

Mine is as far to the left as I am to the right, we avoid the subject.

ChrisBennet · ChrisBennet's Garage

We've mellowed out and our views have gotten closer but even when were on opposite sides politically we never had any problems getting along. If you respect your partner you should be able to accept that (oh my gosh!) they might be right and you might be wrong and temper your um "enthusiasm" for your own views accordingly.
I sometimes wonder what the mail man thought when he was putting mail from PETA and the NRA in the same mailbox though.

-Chris

techweenie · techweenie's Garage

Quote:

Originally posted by ChrisBennet
I sometimes wonder what the mail man thought when he was putting mail from PETA and the NRA in the same mailbox though.
-Chris

LOL!

BlueSkyJaunte · 10-31-2005, 08:51 AM

Funny, if I belonged to any organization, I'd belong to both.

Mulhollanddose · 09:12 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by widebody911
Bush is 10 times more Fascist than any Democrat could be considered socialist.

You are only fooling yourself widebutty.

speeder · speeder's Garage

Quote:

Originally posted by 125shifter
I think a more interesting question is: "How many people share different political and religious views than their parents?"

I agree, it's a much more interesting question. People dating would not have had any influence on each other's formative years, worldview-wise. My Mom and stepdad whose house I was raised in are hard-core leftists, and I agree w/ them on practically nothing. My younger sister shares my independence of thought, but my brother and older sister are fairly close to the parents' views, which are basically that all poverty is someone else's fault, government should do everything for everyone including ass-wiping, etc....

I am an absolute Republican compared to them, and an absolute pinko compared to the kool-aid drinking Bush supporters around here. The current administration gives the GOP the worst name ever, makes Nixon look like their Kennedy and Agnew was a pisher and a popcorn pimp compared to Cheney.

speeder · speeder's Garage

Don't tell me that you set your own house on fire in solidarity w/ your heroes, Jason.