We Broke Up Over Politics
Politics and relationships: One couple agreed to disagree—until this election cycle.
"We could really use some Clinton surplus right about now," I'd say.
"We could use some Clinton cuts to welfare, maybe," Karen would reply.
"Reagan could have fixed the spending epidemic," she'd challenge.
"Too bad he didn't help with with AIDS epidemic," I'd respond.
It got worse. I don't even know if I was as liberal as I acted around her, but it got to the point where I'd start looking for places to start a fight. We'd fought before, but apologies and make-up sex would heal each wound. With our political views, however, we were unapologetic, and sex—make-up or otherwise—rarely follows any argument about John McCain's revised perspective on torture.
The last straw came with Palin's selection as McCain's running mate. I worked myself into a feminist rage over what I saw as her mom-at-home attitudes, anti-abortion stance and exploitation of her femininity to make sexist voters feel less threatened. If Karen voted for that ticket, she was a hypocrite, plain and simple. She accused me of the same, saying it was sexist to think I could know who a woman "ought" to vote for. She left for a friend's house that evening. She only came back for her things.
Love doesn't transcend politics—it is politics. Each person representing his or her own view, contributing, swapping ideas, compromising. Sometimes you can manage the bipartisan effort. And sometimes you need a two-state solution.
Discussion
I agree with Proud Mary. It's not what you disagree on, it's how you deal with it. Personally I can't imagine being married to a Republican. It's not even so much what our idealogical differences might be, but the way it seems they argue their points(as seen on CNN,FOX[which I refuse to watch],newspaper editorials and in internet posts). I have come to thoroughly despise their closed mindedness.I say this all tongue in cheek as I'm sure the other side views things quite the opposite. While my wife and I are both democrats- I'm quite conservitive, she-quite irresponsible. So in a sense we have our idealogical differences but I think different parties would be the straw that would break the camels back. While I'm sure Marys' and James' relationship presents many interesting chalanges--I'm sure we could all learn something in how they deal with and overcome the differences. Hey, that would probably make a good TV show!
It's not what you fight over, its how you fight. Sounds like this writer and his GF fought nasty, making passive agressive comments about issues they knew would get on the other one's nerves.
They could have been fighting about anything from movies to restaurants and they still would have broken up because they didn't fight kindly and with respect.
