Families and Politics

My family has a pretty wide range of political views and beliefs - and those views tend not to be partisan. My parents disagree on most political issues, my brothers all have their hot buttons, I'm in the middle of the road and my kids are - like my brothers and I were at their age - pretty darn radical. I wouldn't call our political discussions 'civil and polite' - we yell at each other, we roll our eyes at each other, we suggest that the other is uninformed or just plain wrong. But when it comes right down to it, our political beliefs don't change our relationships and our love for each other. We don't hit below the belt, and that saves a lot of hurt feelings. It's fun these days watching my dad argue with my kids - who both are pretty left and liberal to his pretty right and conservative. I actually learn quite a lot from both of them.

I suppose this used to be a problem. But my family has learned not to talk about politics. About 2/3 of the family are conservative Repulbicans and about 1/3 are Democrats - some more moderate and some more liberal. We might briefly chide one another, but we've learned not to get into lengthy discussions.

We do not have any political arguments. My husband used to be for the NDP, and I am for C.H.I.P and we both like the Progressive Conservatives. The NDP is far left, and the C.H.I.P is a Christian party, but we both hate the Liberals that are like your Democrats, and the Progress Conservatives are like REpublicans but more to the Center. But I used to live in British Columbia and there was the Social Credit Party there and there were quite a lot of arguments because my father had friends who were staunch Social Credits and they could do no wrong. I was too young to understand their policies though.

I am sorry for your story. i don't have that kind of problem,i don't think it is a good place to talk about politics, maybe as a way of entertainment to talk about it ,which will be okay,that occassion won't be serious.family is a spot that we can stay for rest not for angry or unhappy union.

Politics is a topic of discussion that always brings out the best and the worst in us all,and many of us get so pig headed about our own views that we close our ears to the views of those around us,believing that our views are the right ones ,we know there are many political viewpoints,and unless we are prepared to listen to all sides then we have a bit of a biased view.

Yes, I think this is happening to many families. In our family, I think my husband, two grown up children, and myself are the only Obama supporters. In the past, a lot of the family voted for Bush, but I had at least one other family member voting against him. This time, I think my sister's family might be voting for McCain, and it is likely because Obama is black. That bothers me, but I can't change it. I am trying to leave people alone, but I wish I could have an impact on their votes. However, I am unwilling to shred my family relationships for the sake of an election. I need and want them in my life long past the time when the presidency of either of these candidates is up.

Pretty much the rest of my family except for my wife (thank God) thinks of my political opinions in the same way as many many myLotters. However, I have never let the fact that so many others are wrong bother me in the least. In my family, I have learned to not discuss politics. After asking them to at least read a book or a few articles on different subjects before discussing those same subjects and being ignored, I gave up on trying to have an informed discussion with any of them. Except, of course, my wife, who fortunately holds most of the same opinions as myself, except in those cases where I am wrong.

they are usually fine, but occasionaly people go away angry

my family and i for the most part agree on political issues.