In high school I ended a friendship over politics, and a couple of years ago I kicked an ex boyfriend out of my house for saying that 'Israelis kill babies' followed by a bunch of other ridiculous comments. needless to say I never spoke to him again. When we dated he made all these comments about how jews have gaudy vulgar taste (he was a 'sophisicated' French artist with bland unimaginative taste). I guess he felt he could say those things because he was dating a left-wing athiest israeli. In fact he once said It's amazing how disgusgting people can turn out to be once they feel comfortable enough to open up. I could never date a republican or an anti semitic artist (posing as a liberal).

A republican?  No way.  I have a hard enough time with most democrats.  They're a bit too self-congratulatory and that's hard to fathom considering they really haven't accomplished anything even resembling progressive in at least a generation.  

I did go out on a Hooksexup date with a Republican a couple years ago.  She was beautiful, and well educated, a doctor affiliated with a big hospital.  My first clue that it was a bad match was when she brought up the subject of racial profiling which was big in the news at the time.  She thought it was perfectly reasonable... no worries to her... and she peppered her thesis with many racially based "observations."  I will admit that when she first said she was Republican I did my best to put it aside, simply because she was incredibly good looking... I made it through the first date and even considered going out with her again.  The next conversation though was on the phone and that was pretty much the end of that.

And Vixen... my experience living in the Park Slope area for the last 16 years has taught me that many people who call themselves liberals are actually posing.

I dated a republican for years and he made me listen to conservative talk radio!!  But you know-it still worked.  

Politics is a really dumb thing to decide a relationship on-If you can just respect each others opinions and just decide to care for the other person it works. The problem is when they begin to push their beliefs onto you.  I dated a "libreal democrat" and he ended up a closet pro-lifer.  He kept trying to tell me that he was right in his beliefs and I was wrong.  We disagreed so much about it it completely tore apart the relationship.

Also: Ending a friendship or relationship should be because they treated you badly not just because of politics or because of stupid jokes. Thats being a bad friend for one, and also petty.

I've experienced discrimination before and the real thing hurts.  In jest though, anything should go.  If not people will never fully open up to you.  The ability to accept someone for who they are, no matter what, is the deepest trust you can have.  

aghm--I think it really depends on how strongly you believe what you do, and why you vote one way or another.  It's one thing if it's because one of you is a fiscal conservative and the other liberal, and quite another if the beliefs, or differences of belief are founded on other large parts of the Republican platform which they're pretty clear about being based on "moral issues."  

Could I date a moderate Republican?  Perhaps, but it's doubtful.  Could I date a Bush supporter?  Not a chance!  To support this administration and what they stand for and what they're doing shows a complete lack of either intelligence, common sense, scruples, compassion, decency, or all of the above.  It shows an utter disregard for the people we share this planet with, and the planet itself.  

I could even break it down to single issues.  Do you support this war?  If so, we will not get along.  

Zeitgeisty--I broke camp with Hillary Clinton in 2006 when she and Chuck Schumer expedited the delivery of cluster bombs to Israel after it was proven that the IDF was using them extensively on civilian targets in Lebanon.  Don't get me wrong.  I certainly don't support Hezbollah, who I believe are bloodthirsty powermongers also... but it comes down to this for me, and call me a simpleton.  There are two types of people in the world.  Those that kill children, and those that don't.  So I have a hard time with lots of Democrats also.

And yes, there are many Obama-ites that make me ill.  You end up in a lot of "liberal" households when you're raising children in "liberal" Park Slope.  All these parents run around beating their chests shouting about how they love diversity but when you take your kids to their houses for a birthday party, it looks like an early George Lucas film.  There is a conspicuous absence of diversity.  Hmmmmmm.

ending the friendship in high school may have been excessive but I took myself and politics very seriously back then... I have grown since. as for my friendship with my ex... I had no problem with the joking (since I crack jew jokes myself), it was the total lack of respect and the way he looked at me as if I was a murderer that made me kick him out of my house. suddenly all those jokes took on a different meaning.

that last comment I posted was for aghmprettyok.

I enjoy aggravation. And arguing.  

Why else would I visit this blog so often?

Pretty simple: I'm voting for Obama. If somebody votes for McCain, so be it, although I'll do my endeavorest to change their mind.

i am currently w/ someone who refers to himself as a "South Park" republican. ( A republican w/out all the religious ideology.)  he's an atheist Russian Jew (he moved to this country when he was 8).  i am not a republican.  we don't talk politics very often, if we do, it's always cut short - we have other things to say.   we were friends before we dated, he would complain about not getting dates, and i would say "you're such a great guy, why are you having so much trouble?" and he'd say "you know why" and i would think for a long time and he'd remind me "i'm a conservative, every time i'm out w/someone and things are going okay, she'll bring up politics and i'll tell her what i think and she doesn't want to hang out w/me anymore".  

the fact is, there's more to this guy than his political beliefs.  what it comes down to is i don't want to vote for him, i just want to have sex with him.