Usually, when couples decide to split up, the problem is infidelity, money, or maybe a lack of communication. However, as the Washington Examiner notes, increasingly some marriages and committed relationships are fracturing because of political differences, especially over President Donald Trump. The problem seems to be most keenly manifested, not surprisingly, among millennials.
Wakefield Research has found that one in ten relationships have ended over political differences, with the ratio among millennial couples shooting up to 22 percent. One in three couples report that arguments over politics have caused an adverse impact in their relationship.
24 percent of couples and 44 percent of millennials say that disagreements over politics have gotten worse since the election of President Trump.
The problem seems to be driven by Democrats who have vowed never to enter into a relationship with a Republican. Republicans, by contrast, seem willing to have a go at dating a liberal Democrat.
One wonders if fights over politics have always put a strain on relationships during times of political controversy. Did couples split up over the 2000 Recount, Watergate, the Vietnam War? Such a study would be useful to put the Wakefield Research report into some context. One would like to think that Donald Trump does not have a unique ability to drive people crazy and decide to split with one’s loved one.
To be sure, some high profile mixed politics couples have been around forever to set an example of how love conquers all political differences. If Clinton operative James Carville and Bush staffer Mary Matalin can still be married after all of these years, then surely people can get a little perspective. Indeed, conservative writer Mary Katherine Ham was married to Obama White House staffer Jacob Brewer until his recent, tragic death in a bicycling accident.
The upshot is that mixed political marriages can work if people set their minds to it. It may involve avoiding certain subjects at the dinner table. Other couples simply develop a thick skin about what they might consider inane comments. “Yes dear, Donald Trump should be impeached and thrown in jail, bless your heart. I love you anyway.”
One would like to think that even in this messed up, modern age people do not get together primarily because of shared political interests.
“You think that illegals should be rounded up and shipped back where they came from? So do I! I love you.” Relationships should be based on a much broader basis than that, above all only mutual respect. And who know? Maybe he or she may come around eventually, though not if there is too much yelling involved.
