My husband and I are very different in many ways.
He’s a city boy and I’m a farm girl. I’m Protestant and he’s Jewish. I’m addicted to Project Runway and he doesn’t get it!
Even with those differences, our “mixed” marriage is strong. But I wasn’t sure what was going to happen when it turned out that we had voted for different candidates in our state’s presidential primary.
I voted for Hillary Clinton, but he voted for Obama. To say I had Barack Shock would be an understatement.
You see, for as long as we’ve been together, for whatever differences we’ve had, we’ve always been on the same page politically. There has never been an electoral disagreement in our house — until now. (At least he didn’t vote outside the party — now that WOULD have been grounds for divorce!)
Apparently, we’re not the only ones working on this issue in 2008. And someone is trying to cash in on this phenomenon.
A press release that popped into my E-mail this week was titled: Can Democrats and Republicans Find True Love That Lasts (With Each Other)?: America’s Love Doctor Gives Relationship Advice to Political Junkies in Love – Just in Time for the Elections.
Now, I have no problem with couples therapy, but who knew you could see a therapist for political wanderings?
Somehow James Carville and Mary Matalin make extreme political leanings work in their marriage, so I’m not worried that Mr. PunditMom and I will get past this little political bump in the road. Which I guess is bad news for America’s Love Doctor. I don’t think we really need her conflict management tools and her Three C’s of Love to handle this difference of opinion.
But if you’re a John McCain supporter in a relationship with an Obama fan, maybe a little conflict management couldn’t hurt. Or, it could turn into Bravo’s newest reality show — something like a cross between The Biggest Loser and The Millionaire Matchmaker. And if it does, I want a cut, ’cause you heard it here first!
March 22nd, 2008 at 9:11 am
I like your new reality show idea – I think it’s just what Bravo needs instead of WorkOut 3. (Not, of course, that I won’t watch WorkOut, because I’m addicted to Bravo)
March 22nd, 2008 at 3:33 pm
i can’t tell you how or why but somehow my republican, pepsi drinking, country music fan, couch potato husband and myself as a democrat, coke drinking, rock and roll fan and active sports kind of gal manage to make it work and work very well. we will be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary this coming may. the biggest help is we agree to disagree and move on.
i will confess that the cola difference is the biggest potential for contention.
March 22nd, 2008 at 7:44 pm
I “almost” married a Reagan Republican back in the early 80′s when I was young and dumb. Luckily the man I DID marry also comes from a good Democratic family, in fact his stepdad had been a campaign manager on a number of campaigns. It was quite nice to be politically compatible with the in-laws!
March 22nd, 2008 at 9:51 pm
I’m sleeping with a Hillary supporter so I get it. But a McCain supporter? God forbid. I once blew off a date, a radio sports reporter, after he told me he really wanted to be the next Rush. “You mean like an opinion guy?”
“No,” he said. “The next powerful conservative talk show host.”
Buh-bye.
March 23rd, 2008 at 4:34 pm
My husband threatened to vote for McCain and I told him I’d divorce him. And I would. My ex-husband was a Yankees fan and we know how that turned out.
March 23rd, 2008 at 8:57 pm
I think that would be an awesome reality show! Unless there were Ron Paul supporters involved…
March 24th, 2008 at 9:15 am
In the 20 years I’ve known my husband, and the 10 years we’ve been married, I can count on one hand the number of times we’ve voted the same in a Presidential election. It is a mystery to me. Luckily one of them was the last presidential election, or I would have had to divorce him. Not sure how we are going to survive this upcoming one. I and my 8 yo son are squarely for Clinton, whereas my husband’s republican roots are showing.
March 24th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
My husband and I did the same thing at our primary! That’s never happened to us before. I was very torn up until I walked into the polls, and then went with my original preference: Hillary.
March 26th, 2008 at 7:38 am
We had the same split in our house, vote-wise.
I just feel for our son who hears “Oh, that’s Mr. Obama. Daddy hopes he’s our next President.” and then sees me in my Madam President t-shirt and hears a similar take in favor of Hillary.
Also? We still have a Kucinich sticker on our car.
At least Max knows that George is a Monkey…..thanks to a book on the shelves titled Clueless George.
March 31st, 2008 at 8:02 pm
lol
My husband and I this year voted for different republicans in the primary-
we always say we agree to disagree and I added ‘and I reserve the right to change my mind’
We shook on it