Politics and Friendship

[LDAHL]

Recently, I've seen pieces at both Slate and the New York Times talking about friendships strained or broken by differing political views. I remember this happening in past elections: people insisting, for example, that they couldn't see reconciling with anyone so morally bankrupt that they could vote for the arch-fiend Bush.

The difference this year, however, seems to be largely intramural, with Democrats arguing with Democrats and Republicans Republicans. I myself got into it last night with a Trump supporter. Him arguing his guy was a bold truth-teller who would defy ossified party dogma and PC orthodoxy. Me arguing that he was dangerously stupid. I've also seen some pretty heated stuff in comments sections with Democrats calling each other misogynists, sell-outs, dupes and "on the wrong side of history".

I was curious if others out there were seeing the same thing.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_a...riendship.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/24/op...rump.html?_r=0

[catherine]

I think that this year we are bonding with the extremities of both parties--usually politicians are just politicians. This election cycle, two of them are potential saviors and the others are "Lucifer in the flesh" and talking about politics with friends is bad enough, but mixing it with "religion" is a double whammy.

My husband and I typically cancel each other's votes out, but my DIL bought DH a "Make America Great Again" hat as kind of a joke because she and he are the only Republicans in the family. DH refuses to wear it because a) he think Trump as president would be a disaster and b) he doesn't want to get beat up. We have a lot of liberal friends. Hanging out with our liberal/hippie friends wearing his US Marines hat is as far as he will go. Wearing a Trump hat is definitely crossing the line.

[Tenngal]

facebook..........I am always wondering how I can be friends with others who seem to lump all Democrats into the "crazy liberal" category.
Most Democrats in the south are pretty conservative.......

[ApatheticNoMore]

b) he doesn't want to get beat up. We have a lot of liberal friends. Hanging out with our liberal/hippie friends wearing his US Marines hat is as far as he will go. Wearing a Trump hat is definitely crossing the line.

at least you don't have Mexican or Muslim friends ... whose ostracism of a Trump hat would be because the guy hates their very existence .... and other small concerns ..

[Ultralight]

facebook..........I am always wondering how I can be friends with others who seem to lump all Democrats into the "crazy liberal" category.
Most Democrats in the south are pretty conservative.......

DINOs.

[Ultralight]

I don't have any right-wing friends in irl.

In college I had a few. We'd have debates -- both formally and informally. We got along fine otherwise. I thought they were wackos. They thought I was a nutcase. All was well! haha

And back then I was extremely active politically.

I will say this. In 2004 I vocally toyed with voting for Nader. All my liberal friends dumped me.

I then went to them one-by-one and said: "Will you take me back if I vote for the very French-looking John Kerry?"

They all said:: "Yes, but you have to be public about your intent to vote for Kerry and to no longer vote for Nader."

For real.

[iris lilies]

Im not surprised that intra-party fighting is heated.

The worst, mist vitriolic political fights happen during primaries. There are deep seated hatreds formed during same-party campaigns that do not go away over a lifetime. Weve had someheavy duty Republican in-fighting in the past 3 years. Two suicides were the result of that crap.

When pols are up against the other party, they all know thats just politics as usual, no one takes the rhetoric personally.

[iris lilies]

I don't have any right-wing friends in irl....

Is that by design?

I really cant imagine limiting friendships to one political point of view. I find that most people are reasonable and are on a spectrum of wanting the same things for their country, their community, their family.

How we get that stuff is where we differ. When I look at what we all share as common goals, its not hard to figure them out when I broaden my view. I grow very tired of the silly characterizatins of the "other side" that I read and hear daily, from both sides. However, I think the Trumps, Fiorinas, Clintons, et al deserve every critiscism they get.

[Ultralight]

Is that by design?

It is not by design. It is what I would call a confluence of circumstances. Columbus proper is a very liberal city -- especially socially. My social circles are based on atheism/secular humanism and voluntary simplicity/minimalism. These two areas tend to attract mostly liberal folks, and in a liberal city the effect is compounded.

There is one atheist guy I know who is right-wing, but we're not friends. We just don't have anything else in common.

I know a libertarian and we're nominally friendly, but we just don't have much in common.

[LDAHL]

I'd estimate my circle at about 70/30 GOP/Dem, with a fairly large proportion of the Dems associated with the education industry or non-profits. We weathered Scott Walker's conflicts with the teachers' unions and university system pretty well, and I think they consider me more misguided than malicious.

My GOP acquaintances seem pretty well lined up behind Cruz, although I wouldn't say enthusiastically. The Dems seem pretty evenly split between populists for Bernie and feminist identitarians for Hillary (maybe along generational lines, as well). Being the hopeless case that I am, I seldom get drawn into intra-Dem arguments (probably don't want to give me the satisfaction).

It's funny how we tend to self-segregate.