Law Students

Marrying the GOP

By Andrea

LL writes a great post in response to a question that has always bewildered me: "How can you be married to a Republican?" (People have asked me this question both while laughing and while seriously shaking their heads.) The short answer: a) Uh, it's not that hard and b) Because we share the same values, just not the same political party. Also, we're both moderates, which helps. If Dan was a crazy social conservative, or if he thought illegal immigrants were bad cheating criminals, this wouldn't be happening. And I were a hard-core socialist, or thought American foreign policy is racist, we'd have a lot of fights.

But we don't. We're both feminists who believe that the national debt as a political issue is underrated; we both think affirmative action is not that great but a working capitalist society needs a strong safety net of public benefits. Like LL and JP, we agree about how to manage our money and raise our kid, and we plan great lives of public service and trivia nights. Except that if I run and give Obama $50, he's going to immediately log on and give McCain $50. Grrr!

There are real differences - this month he worked on drafting the first bill I really, really disagreed with. But we talk about it with a lot of respect, and I'd rather be us than a couple that creepily agrees on absolutely everything. After all, you've got to marry someone you can still talk to when you're 90 and rocking on the nursing home porch; I know we'll always have a good-natured debate to conduct.

Full post as published by Peanut Butter Burrito on April 28, 2008 (boomark / email).