Real life friends

I have no friends that are liberals. My best friend up in Michigan was actually the one who got me into libertarianism. Before that, I was more conservative socially. He's the only one of my friends who is politically knowledgeable.

I know of 2 people who voted for Obama for sure - my aunt and my cousin. My cousin was 19 when she voted for him, so she didn't know any better. She's a smart cookie, however. On the other hand, my aunt is a pill-popping, alcoholic recluse who weighs close to 3 bills and can go weeks without leaving her house and rarely gets out of her recliner in her waking hours. She loves Obama.

And no, I'm not making this up.

The rest I know love Bush. My mother liked him, but less so once I started informing her about basic political truths and viewpoints. She's still socially conservative, but not as much as before.

sawyerloggingon said:

I just got off the phone with a friend of mine who is very lib and loves Obama and it got me wondering about other people in this forum. Some of you seem to hate people on the other side of the isle and I am wondering how this effects your social life. IMO more libs hate cons than visa versa and shun them but lets see.

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I'm neither an American liberal nor conservative, so I don't know which option to choose, but yes, I do have friends who I disagree with politically and who vote other parties than I do. The only people I don't want to be friends with are neo-Nazis, violent leftists or other violent extremists along these lines. Disagreement is perfectly fine, as long as we agree we let the elections decide.

LaMidRighter said:

I really wish there was an "other" choice. I am a libertarian, registered as such, and my views can swing anywhere from liberal to conservative on the spectrum dependent upon the issue. I'm a Libertarian because they are the closest to any semblance of following the constitution which is my major issue, and my "lean" tends to go with the founding document. I have friends on all sides of the aisle, they are entitled to their opinions as am I, and we have heated discussions but at the end of the day they are all good people, or they wouldn't be in my life.

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I try to avoid heated discussions. Just as here at DP, some of my family members are ideologues. They have their packaged talking points, and that's that.

Besides, they are stupendously uninformed and do not keep up the way those of us who post at DP do, not even in their own hometowns, which I think is sinfully irresponsible citizenship.

If nobody argues/corrects a factual mistake--suffers in stoic silence, I mean, and I "slip" only every so often--the topic will quickly turn.

I have friends from a variety of social, ethnic, regional, religious, economic or political backgrounds, but none are what I call dittoheads. I use that word to mean conservatives who lack the capacity for critical thought, and just go with whatever the current outrage is. There are liberals who do the same thing, and I don't keep them as friends, either, but I don't have a special name for them.

If someone's a conservative and either doesn't want to smear his politics over everything he sees, or, if he does want to talk politics, can do so in an unemotional and rational way, then they're good with me. If they start quoting Rush or tell me what good sources of information NRO, TownHall, Human Events, or Fox News talk shows are, then I don't have any interest in talking to them.

My best friend is conservative.

I had a friend who I thought was Conservative, until one day he asked "What's wrong with Socialism?" It wasn't the question that pissed me off so much as the way he posed the question. Actually it was more like a challenge. I couldn't believe my ears. In essence, I was hanging out with a closet liberal! Our friendship has toned way down over the years, but not so much because of that idiotic question, but because he's an incredibly selfish person (which, of course, is a common trait among liberals, to begin with).

Dooble said:

I had a friend who I thought was Conservative, until one day he asked "What's wrong with Socialism?"

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Out of curiosity, were you able to answer the question? Did a good conversation follow, or just ranting? Sounds like something I'd ask someone who calls himself conservative just to see if he thinks things through or if he's just a knee-jerk populist. If he were the latter I might keep going just to watch the hysterical reaction, if he were the former I'd eventually let on that I wasn't arguing for socialism, I just wanted to see how he would argue against it.

nota bene said:

I try to avoid heated discussions. Just as here at DP, some of my family members are ideologues. They have their packaged talking points, and that's that.

Besides, they are stupendously uninformed and do not keep up the way those of us who post at DP do, not even in their own hometowns, which I think is sinfully irresponsible citizenship.

If nobody argues/corrects a factual mistake--suffers in stoic silence, I mean, and I "slip" only every so often--the topic will quickly turn.

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I only go into it with my friends who are well informed that disagree and only if it is something important.

I have both conservative and liberal friends.

I hate talking politics with either group though. They are sooooooooooooo misinformed.

2 are severly christain I am not Also one is a lesbain . I dont inquire on which party they deal with since they dont seem to watch the news or care for todays politics in which I do .

I am politically ala carte yet on the majority of issues I lean to more liberal perspectives. I do admire intelligence and there are some conservative politicians I completely admire and would cast my vote for them. I do not discuss politics with conservative friends as it usually boils down to discussions such as "Obama did not wear a flag pin or he hates the military".

My very bff is very liberal politically and yet more socially conservative. She moved here from Tehran and so clearly she detests overlaps of church and state and abhors conservative politics as in the Iranian regime.

Despite living in this country for less than 10 years ... and Farsi being her first language and her second language was Arabic force fed to her in the blended church/state schools ... it is a pleasure to converse with her as she has a broad vocabulary and speaks English more fluently than most American women.

Generally though so many American woman are only worried of television and Hollywood media hype (not the woman on this forum though) and so political differences are not a big issue in light female friendships.

I will say the extreme right or left or anyone with hatred for their fellow countrymen or violence in their heart would not be welcome in my circle.

I have a friend whom I think knows a Liberal.

Being in the south, alot of my friends are all Conservatives, and my sister-in-law is a hardcore Romney Republican. During election time, I just hide her from my Facebook feed. We don't talk about politics, and I don't talk to many of my friends about politics. Honestly, they just don't know what they are talking about. They don't watch the news, they don't do any research. People that don't bother to back up their positions by actual research aren't worthy of political discussion, in my opinion, so I just talk about football or something. Or, in my sister-in-law's case, I just look at another coupla thousand pictures of her granddaughter. :roll:

I don't usually talk about politics or religion with my RL friends. This is where I go to act like an ass and fight about those things. :lol:

sawyerloggingon said:

I just got off the phone with a friend of mine who is very lib and loves Obama and it got me wondering about other people in this forum. Some of you seem to hate people on the other side of the isle and I am wondering how this effects your social life. IMO more libs hate cons than visa versa and shun them but lets see.

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... I have no idea why human beings feel that compulsive self-destructive need to make comments like that. You have no objective or scientific criteria backing such a perception.

Regardless, of my small circle of about seven people I ordinarily hang out with (not counting more distant acquaintances who don't regularly see), two could be called politically conservative; I went to one's wedding this year. With him, we are evasive about political subjects. Relatively easy since he is unimpressed with how the Republican Party is organized and operates and doesn't like to talk about either party very much. The other is one of my closest friends and we have civil discussions about the direction the country is taking.

Occasionally they can get heated, but if the powers-that-be already own society, there is no reason to let them take my friendships as well. We "shake hands" and usually perform some token gesture (like buying each other drinks) to reaffirm our friendship.