The Democratic Underground Thread Of The Day: Losing Friends Over The Election

by John Hawkins | September 8, 2008 12:49 pm

So, I am perusing the Democratic Underground and as per usual, it’s highly entertaining, and I came upon a thread called “add me to the list of folks who are losing friends over this election..[1].”

The thread is absolutely full of liberals saying that they couldn’t be friends with conservatives anymore because of this election. Here are some of the posts from the threads,

yellowdogintexas: add me to the list of folks who are losing friends over this election..

Now this was not a close friend. We went to school together and knew each other well enough.

Got reacquainted over the last HS reunion

sending some great jokes back and forth and gossip.

Then she started in with the tacky political humor, which I just deleted

Then she sent me some stuff that was more than tacky humor. I asked her to just not send me that type of stuff that I didn’t like it.

She replied back, said she would not…no problem..

but she sent another one I deleted it

Then she sent one that was just the last straw about Obama saying the Iraq war was a mistake and it was a video supposedly made by a soldier.

It just set me off.

So I responded with my own opinions on the war and how it is most definitely not unpatriotic to say it was a mistake.

And reminded her that I had asked her not to send me this stuff and that if she did I would return some angry replies.

So today she told me she would not send another email to me ever again.

So I don’t like conflict and argument and it wasn’t pleasant to know I had not accomplished what I wanted. But I think I will get over it.

She said I was the only person she knew who would not agree with the sentiment. Guess she needs to get out more.

this is not as if I lost my closest friend or anything. Of my 3 closest female friends, two are great Democrats. The other one is a Republican of the Rockfeller variety who unfortunately hasn’t figured out what her party has done. We love her, she was in our wedding and we just don’t talk about it.

sweets: i’ve lost 2 friends.

one i had for 2 years — the other one was my friend for almost 19 years. and just the other day my hairdresser told me that she won’t vote for obama because he’s black. (Hawkins’ note: I’d probably drop a barber for the same reason, so I can’t fault him there)

friday i got into an argument with a man in a restaurant over politics.

SheilaT: I hope you will have a new hairdresser by the time you need the next hair cut.

I dropped a right-wing hairdresser I’d had for about ten years over the Iraq War, even before the invasion.

Bobbieo: It all depends on the circumstances if you can get along without them or no!!!

I’ve cut off two close friends because of this – I won’t be affected in any way as I am retired. Thank God this did not happen when I was working!!!

glaeken777: i wish it was just friends

In my case, my father and I are barely holding on to a relationship. He feels the values of his father, father before him etc etc ad infinitum, are under attack by liberals. We had a 2-hour discussion (much of it tear-filled for me) in which I tried to explain how and why my worldview has changed in a decade’s time. I appealed to him as a former hippie who campaigned his heart out first for RFK, then Humphrey. No dice. I’ve lost my dad and he feels like I’ve betrayed him.

CrispyQGirl: Many will tell you that you shouldn’t let politics get between you & a friend

or family member. But here’s the thing. The current republican & democratic views are so contradictory that you are dealing with more than a simple difference of opinion on politics – they are different world views. Competitive or cooperative? “You’re On Your Own” (YOYO) or “We’re In This Together” (WITT)? Value the individual at the cost of the community or support the community, knowing that it is only within a strong community that individuals can excel?

I have many republican acquaintances, but no close republican friends. My mother was a republican & it strained our relationship almost to the breaking point. Like your friend, she would not cease & desist with the mean-spirited, hateful emails, even after many requests from me to do so. She passed away last year & although I do miss her, I do not miss the conflict & confrontation that I’m sure this election would have brought on.

temperancedissent: Sh*t I been losing friends for 8 years now

ha ha… most of them not good friends obviously as I don’t give up on true friends so easily. The one I am saddest about is a girl friend of over 20 years. We have seen each other through some really hard struggles, and even though we still talk on the phone from time to time I can detect that, ‘yea well whatever’ disconnect in her voice. Perhaps with time we can get close again.

On the up-side of course (and there is always an up-side to everything) is that the ‘deleting’ of some friends has made that that much more room for newer, greater, and like-minded people. So I look at it as another one of those win-win situations.

I will grant there are some people who just cannot keep themselves from nastily picking at political scabs and thereby make it almost impossible for people who disagree to remain friends with them. But geeze, throwing away relationships with parents or close friends over politics? It just seems like such a waste…

Endnotes:
  1. add me to the list of folks who are losing friends over this election..: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3943106

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