Mixed marriages
Scott Kirwin has an interesting post on mixed marriages. Politically mixed, that is.
There are serious benefits to a Liberal/Conservative marriage. First and foremost it keeps both of us from the extremes. If she comes home with some barking moonbat piece of tripe, I can usually shoot it down before she has wasted too much time on it or worse, come to believe it herself. Likewise I can sound an idea or an opinion off her and get her candid take on it before going public with it - thereby applying a level of rigor to what might otherwise have been a stupid idea or opinion. Secondly we can intellectually spar with one another, thereby keeping our ideas fresh and perhaps even (gasp) changing them. Finally, when we're together we can handle issues and situations using our different perspectives. Because of her liberal nature she can be much more open with salesmen than I can be. If the salesman takes advanatage of her openness, I can step in and bitch-slap him into submission without any regard for his feelings or the validity of his opinions. Needless to say the "Good cop - Bad cop" routine comes in quite handy when dealing with disputes with retailers and service providers.
I'm in such a marriage myself, so I always find it interesting to hear other people's experiences with such a relationship.
It sounds like Scott's experience, as mine, has been mostly positive. I do think my wife and I tend to moderate one another, but unlike in Scott's household (interestingly) it's my wife who's a hardass in dealing with annoying people, and I'm usually the pushover unless things get really bad.
I'm also learning that relationships such as ours are a bit more unusual than I used to think. I can't think of a single one of my friends who's in the same boat, for example.
If you're in a mixed relationship, we'd like to hear your stories here at Cynical Nation, good or bad. You can do so anonymously. Step right up for True Confession Hour!
Comments
I suspect my b/f is a closet conservative, but he knows better than to come clean around me. ;)
Posted by: J.D. | July 28, 2005 05:00 PM
My wife's as liberal as they come but she doesn't care very much about politics and I think that's the secret of our success. I discovered that she'd donated money to Amnesty International recently, but we didn't fight about it. I just donated the equivalent amount to the RNC.
Posted by: eeyore | July 28, 2005 05:21 PM
I give you all a lot of credit. I'm surprised you managed to survive this last election.
Posted by: Anonymous | July 28, 2005 05:38 PM
I think I'm different from most here. I'm the Democrat in the family and my wife is a Republican. Neither of us are radical though so we get along fine. Makes things interesting. I think it'd be boring to live with a person who thinks exactly the way you do about everything.
Posted by: MKB | July 28, 2005 10:02 PM
How can you have sex with liberals? Aren't you afraid of cooties?
Posted by: MandrakeLnx | July 28, 2005 10:40 PM
I'm a Democrat, wife is Republican. We too tend to beat the fringe idiocy out of each other quite effectively.
Posted by: Greg | July 29, 2005 12:30 AM
"I don't avoid liberal women, Mandrake! But I do deny them my essence."
Heh, sorry, I couldn't resist.
It occurs to me that this whole topic calls into question the examination of John Roberts's wife's work as a pro-life activist. It seems inappropriate to me. No one could draw conclusions about my political philosophy from looking at my spouse or vice versa.
Posted by: Barry N. Johnson | July 29, 2005 07:41 AM
Well, my entire family (mom, dad, sister) is very Democrat and i'm a bit to the right so this past election was pretty funny/painful. It seems like all they ever talk about is abortion, gay rights, and Bush's misspeak. They just love to revel in what they see as sheer idiocy. I've never heard them talk about Islam or terrorism. I think they're just driven by polemics and opposition.
I tend to let it go until the time they defended Durbin's Gulag remark. And my dad once said "if Bush wins again, I just might have to move to Canada after all". God that hurt me more than anything else they've ever said. Sorry, was that too much information?
Posted by: ortho | August 1, 2005 09:42 PM