Can you be friends with people who have opposite political views? (Congress, brainwashing)

[Pilot1]

Yes. We agree to disagree and focus on our vast similarities and interests instead of the few differences.

[Teacher Terry]

We just agree not to talk politics.

[pete98146]

What a question!!!!!!!!!! Absolutely I can. Why would I limit my exposure, viewpoints and interactions with people that I don't agree with? That's like putting horse blinders on and walking around all day long.


I'm a right leaning Libertarian living in Seattle. Three quarters of my friends are liberal. Does that put a halt to our friendship? Please. How juvenile.....

[PedroMartinez]

Originally Posted by usayit

I certainly can... I don't identify with either party. I am conservative in some ways and liberal in others.

If anything, I get more pressure from people "to take a side". Case in point, the poll in this very thread.

You're most likely conservative in most ways.

I bet you believe you're a social liberal, but let's run through it.

If you're a conservative, you want a government with limited powers and a small role in people's personal lives.

A true conservative wants drugs decriminalized because the government should have no say in what an adults puts in their body.

A true conservative is fine with gay marriage, because the government should have no control over a union between two consenting adults.

A true conservative doesn't want a government decide which, if any, religion you practice.

We can discuss it further if you like.

[Ginge McFantaPants]

Originally Posted by Grlzrl

Can you have a friend who has the opposite political views? So far, I only see liberals who have this problem but maybe I am wrong.

Tell us what you are. And if you can associate with the enemy.

Liberal here. I can and do maintain friendships with many conservatives. Not all, because there is a subset who are incapable of mutual respect and healthy discourse.

[crone]

Perhaps if we would discuss politics we would discover that all of us agree on about 80% of the current issues. What a concept. More a like than different. What would the pundits think?

[RollsRoyce1]

If you can't be friends with people with opposite political views then you deserve to be a lonely, friendless person.

I don't really label myself with any partisan political nonsense term, but I am definitely more left of center and I dislike Trump immensely. I have friends and family who are gung ho #MAGA folks who love the guy. And that's fine. I know that they see something in him that I just don't. It doesn't define who they are in my eyes.

[SunGrins]

I vote Democrat in national elections but sometimes split on local or state elections. I have friends who are more liberal than I am and some more conservative. I generally don't abide extremists or Trumpers who insist on expounding on the virtues of Trump but can't rationally defend their position without sinking into bigotry, white nationalism, and/or anti immigrant rhetoric. So, in that sense, I determine who I associate with socially mostly on the individual level.

[ipaper]

Absolutely you can, I'm sure millions of people can relate to that, why would that even be an issue. I'm a dem and I have republican and conservative friends, neighbors and coworkers. We never talk politics, and I guess everybody knows how everybody stands anyway. Everybody gets along in my neighborhood and helps each other out. I really only get into politics on this site, I'm hardly ever talking politics with my friends and family, why burden them with that when you can talk about other stuff. I know I go back and forth with the people on here, but CD is not the world I live in everyday, I don't know people like some of these in real life.

[eastriver]

I have friends who are liberal.