Anyone Here Hate Republicans And Cant Be Friends With Them?

[Puglsy]

I have friends and family who are Reps. I get along fine with all of them. I have friends and family who are democrat, far left liberals, republicans, far right republicans, moderates and independents. I get along with pretty much all of them. I think that in most of my life I really don't let a persons political beliefs dictate if I like them or not. The thing is I have a few friends that do let a persons political beliefs(Both Dem and Rep) affect if they should be friends with them or not. The question I am asking is there anyone here that cannot be friends with Republicans and if they have family that are republicans how do you handle it.

[shenmue]

1. I have a few good friends from way back

but I haven't made any new Republican friends in years.

My old friends come from the last days of the moderates.

The folks of the last few years seem to be Tea Party types. With them, sometimes it's best not to push yourself too hard.

[Cleita]

2. Depends on what kind they are.

If they are misguided by the small government propaganda but really care about people doing better and being kind to animals, I can be friends with them. If their conservatism comes from a place of racism, anything goes if it's business, or the bootstrap myth and other kinds of bigotry, then I can't.

[Nay]

14. Yeah, that's where I am, too. I have a couple of Republican friends. They pretty much

don't talk politics because I'm not Pub. But, in general, most Pubs in VA are of the teabag and/or rich asshole variety, so no, I'm not gonna be friends with many of them. It's stressful enough just living in this state.

[nruthie]

3. I try my best to avoid them.

It seems to help my blood pressure and my mental health in general.

[olddots]

4. I loath and despise them

This makes me a left wing Archie Bunker type but I feel I have good reason for my bigotry .

[Nuclear Unicorn]

30. "...I feel I have good reason for my bigotry."

Have you ever read the essays of John C. Calhoun? He wrote plenty of "reasons" to explain why whites were sufficiently advanced to maintain the institution of slavery and why it was of benefit to those subject to being made slaves. And all of it was secular appeals to empiricism, too.

Hate is a choice and seldom a good one. Rest assured, some RWer who doesn't fit your template will come along and see what you write or hear what you say and they may be so offended they will decide they have a "reason" to hate you.

That can't be progress.

[KT2000]

5. there are some I come into contact

with and they insist on having political discussions. Some I quickly change the subject, one I say we should not talk about this because he won't stop, and yes I try to avoid them. I don't like their values and they only want to express their anger and hatred. Who needs it.

[BillZBubb]

6. I have "grandfathered" in a few old friends of repub leanings.

They know better than to feed me any Faux News BS. I've added no new ones in decades. Don't care to know any. I simply avoid right wing relatives as much as possible.

I had a friend from college who pretended to be progressive. His wife told me one day they were voting for w bush. I was shocked. That was the end of that friendship.

[IkeRepublican]

7. Mostly Republican friends

I have noticed they've become a far more divisive bunch - not only toward Centrist/Democratic/Liberal friends and family members, but also toward one another. Not necessarily due to tiny political differences, but it seems it's due they've allowed themselves to fall into that junior-high level bullshit that has permeated the majority of Republicans and it's worked it's way into other facets of their lives amongst one another.

In some instances, I'm fine with it - serves them right. But, unfortunately, Republicans are into the indirect psychological hostage-taking thing, which usually involves children and it can force them to not interact with other children. That's where it gets despicable and pathetic.

Centrist/Democratic/Liberal friends, or CDL's (no, not the commercial drivers license) could care less about any of that bullshit.

There might be one or two that's gone completely off the deep end that identify as liberal, but really it's a mirror image of the Republican version - selfish crybaby bullshit. No matter what end of the political spectrum such individuals may be, we all have our differences and if one has identified as a liberal and doesn't want to accept our differences, then he or she is not a liberal. He or she is just a dick head...which is Republican bullshit to begin with.

[NanceGreggs]

8. I have one family member ...

... who is a Republican. But when asked about what they stand for that she supports, she can never come up with anything. She sees (D) v (R) as some kind of sports event, and decided to cheer for the R-team when the various men in her life chose that team.

Other than that, all of my friends are ultra-liberal - birds of a feather and all that.

But there is ONE instance that stands out in this regard ...

After almost 40 years of having lost touch with a very close friend from my teenage years, we reconnected via FaceBook. We exchanged a few emails, catching up on what had transpired in our lives since we'd last seen each other - marriages, divorces, children, grandchildren, jobs, places we'd lived, etc.

But once we became FB "friends" and I looked at her FB page, the thing that caught my eye was her "Favorite TV Show" being listed as FOX-News. I never responded to her again.

It wasn't the fact that she was a Republican - I had no intention of getting into discussions about politics in any event. But the minute I saw she was a FOX-News devotee, I knew she was just too stupid for me to want to discuss ANYTHING, politically-related or not.

You just can't be a FOX-News adherent and NOT be a complete idiot. And I have no time for complete idiots, old friends or not.

There's politics and then there's stupidity. I have a certain tolerance for Republican voters - I have zero tolerance for truly stupid people who vote Republican because FOX-News tells them to.

[NanceGreggs]

11. Because I refuse to waste my time ...

... interacting with stupid people? You may consider that harsh; I consider it a wise decision.

BTW, "I watch CNN which is pretty much the opposite of FOX."

I'd say you tipped your hand a little too early in the game.

[Sheepshank]

20. SERIOUSLY? You ask for opinions and then attack when you don't like the response?

Last edited Mon Jun 8, 2015, 12:19 PM - Edit history (1)

like it was really a set up.....one reason I didn't repsond you your OP in the first place.

you got some respctful responses with differing opinions, but you pick on this?

One may ask why you chose this one post to hammer at:

Maybe you just dont like being challenged.
What are you afraid of?
You guys don't have much tolerance

I don't think I like your methods.

[840high]

9. Nope. I don't hate them.

[napi21]

12. I have many relatives who are Pubs. I get along with them fine...

as long as we don't talk politics. I try to avoid it like the plague. The last time two of them visited us, the conversation turned to free 2 year college. My guest said I HATE THAT! I asked why and that I thought it was a good thing. He said he was sure somehow it would cost HIM! I explained that AFAIK it would be paid for by an increase in taxes on the very wealthy. He said he thought it would affect HIM! Now I know he has a lot more $$ than I do, but not nearly enough to be affected by this tax increase. He &his wife are retired. He does get some pension from the military, and has a very nice house that's worth a lot, but He decided not to continue a remodel [project because he was running out of money, so I'm still sure he won't be affected by any tax increase., I know I didn't convince him, but I left my message. If the increase ever does happen, he'll remember what I said.

[secondwind]

13. I just spent a whole week with a Republican... she's a neighbor, and offered to help me

to clean out my condo on the beach in the Caribbean.

It was a little awkward at times, with some pockets of silence, but overall it wasn't bad.. I smiled a lot, didn't discuss politics (although she did bring up Obama once), and smiled a lot.

[Betty Karlson]

17. It rather matters where those Reps come from.

New England Reps (NH in particular) are much more reasonable than for instance a North-Texas, died-in-the-wool, will-vote-for-Perry-no-matter-what Rep.

Many New England Reps are social moderates or even social progressives. And outspokenly so.

[DFW]

18. A VERY few Republican friends

Some of which voted for Obama in 2008 and 2102, taking a pragmatic "no way I want to see HIM in the Oval Office" attitude.

I have one Republican friend who is admittedly a total nut case. He almost single-handedly helped finance direct-mail fundraising to get Reagan elected, and has gone farther and farther to the right ever since. He's smart, articulate (though not Buckley kind of articulate), and I only stumped him once. That was when he was spouting the tired line about Obama being a socialist, and I reminded him that Obama took a bankrupt General Motors into Government hands, nursed it back to profitability, and the returned it to the private sector--something the very opposite of what a socialist would do. That shut him up. But most of the time, he's off the deep end. Knows his stuff, though. He told me in December 2011 that Santorum would surprise everyone in the Iowa caucus in 2012. He was right about that and almost no one else was. At the end of the Cheney administration, he hated Bush Lite almost as much as I did, but for NOT doing what he was expected to do, instead of for all the damage he DID do.

I once helped put on a show in DC about ten years ago, a real savage satire of the Cheneybush administration. The only Republican to show up? My crazy but gentlemanly friend Richard. Recognized by a few attendees, he was asked WTF he was doing there? He said first of all, it was always useful to know how the opposition was ticking (and I was definitely the opposition), plus I was a friend.

Hey, if Tip O'Neill and Ronald Reagan can meet for after hours cocktails in the White House, then I can still be friends with Richard Viguerie. I think he's completely batshit crazy politically, and he thinks the same of me. But he never has an evil word for me personally, and never loses his genuinely friendly demeanor toward me and my family--something I can't say about some who I should consider to be my political allies on this very board.

Having said all that, MOST Republicans I meet, I can't STAND!

[bigwillq]

19. No

Don't hate them, I really don't hate anyone. And, yes, I can be friends with them. I already am friends with a few. I am friends with folks who have different political leanings. I am cool with what they are, and they are cool with what I am. I don't expect everyone to agree on every subject.

[whistler162]

21. Don't know you personally so it

doesn't matter.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

22. I have a few friends whom are (or I suspect are) Republicans

I tend to skirt political conversations with them and, for the most part, so do they. I've adopted a new tactic on Facebook of using a list to only post/share political stuff with friends/family members whom clearly appear to be Democratic/Progressive, which most of them tend to be. It helps keep the arguing to a minimum.

[stonecutter357]

23. no hate at all.

hate is not good for you...

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

24. My sister-in-law has 'political Tourette's syndrome'

We'll be having a perfectly fine conversation about one of 100+ non-political topics and suddenly she'll blurt something like "Goddam Obama and his politically correct tree-huggers!" I've learned to sit quietly while she rants (they only last 30 seconds or so if I don't "feed" them with a counter argument) and then she'll go back to the primary conversation as if nothing had happened. It's kind of like she's playing tennis with someone who doesn't return the ball across the net...

I told her (and my family and friends) that we are polar opposites politically and I will never respond to their arguments because I value their friendship more than I care about being "right." So far the people I care about have accepted that.

I also tell them, "Don't confuse my silence with agreement."

Every now and then, however, I can't resist saying, "You're watching way too much Fox News!"

[FSogol]

25. That's All Folks!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=profile&uid=323661&sub=trans

[MillennialDem]

26. Only my father in law, but he's a RINO. He supports LGBT rights, women's reproductive rights, is in

practice against the death penalty, supports tax fairness (ie rich people should be paying income taxes, not capital gains). Not even sure why he's a republican. He does seem to hate poor people is the only thing.

[GOLGO 13]

27. I make it a point to state to them,

That for the sake of our friendship/working environment/etc that I will not respond to political statements in whatever form the take. It works & I remain friends (ly) with most of them.


I just refuse to engage them.

[Cal33]

28. An old-timer Republican is one thing, and today's Neo-Cons, Corporatists, and Tea Partyers are

something else. We shouldn't lump them all together. In fact, the Neo-Cons joined the
Rep. Party some 40 to 50 years ago, worked their way up the political ladder into
positions of power and ended by kicking out the old-time Republicans. The Neo-Cons
were smart enough to keep the Republican name, so that the masses who vote
think they are still voting Republican. They never knew that a coup had taken place, or
that the real Republican Party no longer even exists.

[Bluenorthwest]

34. That's what straight white people say when they want to excuse their Republican pasts

My entire lifetime the Republican Party has been against the working class, racist, sexist and virulently homophobic.
I hear from some that Reagan era Republicans were creamy moderates worthy of strong support, this is usually offered to explain why Elizabeth Warren was a Republican, also Jim Webb and Lincoln Chafee, they all like to pretend that Party was not so bad back then

Pat Buchanan, famous moderate, was Keynote at RNC 1992. Here is the sort of rhetoric that was driving the GOP 23 years ago...those of us viciously attacked will never, ever forget:

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/patrickbuchanan1992rnc.htm

[Cosmocat]

29. Just have to put it aside

I don't get it, it is a complete mystery to me, but I know a LOT of really good people who buy this shit hook, line and sinker.

Now, there are definitely some raging douchebag types that you can't get around with it.

But, especially in my neck of the woods, you have to just put it aside and accept people for who they are are at heart for the most part.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

31. I married a conservative who married a progressive.

Now we're both anarchists.

Who says love can't work miracles?

[Rosa Luxemburg]

32. Even elected representatives get on with the opposition

[BlueJazz]

33. I have a few acquaintances that are Republican but I find it hard to become friends ...

...with right-wingers. They'll start quoting False News and that's when I mentally subtract points toward friendship.
I'm fair with all types of people ..but friends with all ? No.

[treestar]

36. I can if they keep it to themselves

Or can debate in a friendly way.

Can't choose your relatives though. I have uncles and aunts that cannot shut up about their political opinions. So rude. I leave the room if they bring it up. No reason to sit there and listen to that crap.

[Third Doctor]

37. I live in a very conservative area

and I can't stand most of them. There are no liberal republicans here. They are the bible thumping vote against their own interests type.

[hamsterjill]

38. In Texas, I can't avoid all of them or I'd be a real loner!

I have several friends that have differing viewpoints, and we just don't talk politics. These are people who I've known for a while and respect them for qualities other than their political decisions. As long as THEY are willing to give ME the same courtesy, then I'm fine with it.

I've also lost friends who could not seem to accept the fact that they weren't going to make me change my mind, come over to their side, etc., and they couldn't deal with that.