OK, I haven't been a very active jatraquero lately, but I don't remember seeing a thread like this for a while, sooo...
I was talking with a woman the other day, and she was telling about how her husband (ex-military) used to be very pro-Bush and pro-Iraq War... and since their marriage, he's come to oppose the war, which she thinks is because of her own "corrupting" influence. I found that interesting, and also amusing -- imagining the new Democratic strategy to be for Democrats to marry Republicans in order to win them over. Hey, 1.5 million more marriages like that, and the Democrats will have no problem winning in '08.
So, jatraqueros and jatraqueras... has being married (or in a long-term relationship) affected your spouse's politics or your own? Posts: 2911 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Yup. He always blindly accepted his parents' politics until we were married. I debated things he said and made him think about them. Subsequently he has changed either positions or reasons for his positions to be more logical and in accordance with what he really believes. We still don't jive on everything, but it's a lot closer.
Of course, neither of us ever votes straight ticket. Much to his consternation ( ), I research each issue and the voting records of candidates and make him do the same, or at least read my research with me. We then vote for candidates and propositions that we believe are most in line with what we want for our city, county, state, and nation. It's never all Rep. or all Dem. for either one.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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I convinced my spouse after 10 years of marriage to go vote for the first time and for George W. Bush. Of course I have only been voting for about 6 years.
Posts: 29 | Registered: Jan 2005
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I became much more conservative after I got engaged/married. I think it is because I began paying more attention to things. I became more aware of the world around me. Then, I started listening to Glenn Beck and Chris Baker. (They are conservative radio talk show hosts.)
It was all down hill from there. I went to being a member of Amnesty International to voting for W in the last election.
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I thought the same thing. And if W. is the symbol of America, I'd rather not have Amnesty International as my opposition.
Posts: 5600 | Registered: Jul 2001
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They shouldn't be opposites. I joined because I wanted to help innocent people gain their natural rights. I don't see how Bush is doing much different than that.
I made that comment because most people connected with Amnesty International are very liberal. I am not longer that way.
Posts: 1735 | Registered: Mar 2001
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Both Teres and I are "it depends" voters. Whichever politician that seems to make sense to us -- both by his or her public statements AND actual voting record -- gets our votes. Party affiliation is the last thing either of us cares about. You can run on whatever ticket you like. What matters is what you actually do once you get there.
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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I think it's a lot like Church. If it's not a big part of either of your lifestyles then it doesn't much matter who you voted for or where you fall on the political spectrum. Kind of like there's little to no conflict between a Catholic and a, say, an atheist if neither of them are very much into that aspect of their lives. But when the Catholic goes to Church every Sunday and gets excited about catechism then there can be a problem. Just as an active member of a conservative think-tank would probably have personal issues with his wife who voted straight-ticket Democrat. But then there's still plenty of cases where these situations work too, it's just less likely.
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A close longtime friend of mine convinced me to change my views from mostly Democratic/liberal to Republican/conservative. Not a spouse or a boyfriend or anything like that, but someone I trust and listen to. I realized that I only held those beliefs because my friends and family had taught me to, and I wasn't really thinking for myself. Now I have to avoid talking about politics with said friends and family, but at least I feel better about myself and my opinions. Had anyone else tried to change my mind, I doubt I would have taken them seriously, but because I trust this person so much, I listened. I know it's not quite on the same level as a spousal relationship, but I definitely believe that no matter how strongly someone believes in something, a firm argument by a loved one can cause a complete turnaround in political beliefs and views.
Posts: 1225 | Registered: Feb 2002
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quote:They shouldn't be opposites. I joined because I wanted to help innocent people gain their natural rights. I don't see how Bush is doing much different than that.
Mothertree,
Remember when we were talking about consequentialism. That's it.
Posts: 5600 | Registered: Jul 2001
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Jim and I have fairly different political ideologies; I am fairly liberal socially and moderately left in all other ways, while he (when he thinks about it) is more libertarian than anything else, with a tiny handful of socially conservative leanings. On the rare occasions when we discuss politics, it never goes well, because we have different, clashing ways of justifying our views. He claims, though to distrust all politicians of any stripe, and in fact does not vote (he believes it to be pointless. I disagree with him on this, and have tried to make him see otherwise, despite the fact that in all likelihood he'd be voting completely opposite to me).
However, in this case, I agree very strongly with Hobbes: it isn't really a major part of either one of our lifestyles, so the only times it breeds conflict are those rare occasions when we actually talk about it.
Posts: 4077 | Registered: Jun 2003
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I converted my boyfriend/fiancee/spouse from pro-choice to pro-life through a year of discussions on the subject.
Posts: 1512 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
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Remember when we were talking about consequentialism. That's it.
I think you mean aretree. I don't think we are even related. I did almost start a topic on this a couple of days ago when someone, I think it was Shan, was talking about how she fit in with this guy she was dating.
But I couldn't really come up with anything. I recall a talkshow with the lady that the movie Speechless was based on. I think they were speech writers/sometime white house staff- the wife Rep and the husband Dem. She talked about how hard the Clinton impeachment was on the marriage but in the end she could appreciate her husband's loyalty even though she felt it was misplaced.
My husband is not as conservative as I, but in most cases where I sit down with him and explain why I feel the way I do about an issue, we wind up agreeing.
Posts: 2010 | Registered: Apr 2003
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In your book thread, I talked about consequentialism, and I wanted to give you an example of consequentialism, where the rightness or wrongness of an act is judged by the effects, and how pervasive-- and in my opinion, inappropriate-- that way of thinking is.
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I became much more conservative, in many ways, after meeting my husband. I can't see he was totally a corrupting influence, I think it was just maturity, and thinking about things in new ways.
For ex., when I was 18-19 years old I supported legal abortion because it seemed the thing to do. After we married, and I got pregnant I realized that hey, that's a life inside me! Thus began my shift to pro-life supporter.
I can say my husband has influenced my Christian beliefs. I went from Southern Baptist to Presbyterian for his sake, because he didn't want to join my church. It wasn't arrogance on his part, he really liked the pastor of my church, he was the man who performed our marriage ceremony and we still keep in touch, but joining that church would require Wes to be baptized again, and his grandfather, a Presbyterian minister, baptized him as an infant and Wes couldn't, in his mind, be re-baptized without dishonoring his grandfather's memory. Plus, he didn't think it was necessary. He was willing for us to continue going to that church, but not to become a member. So we looked elsewhere.
Later, I had some falling out with the leadership of our new church (that seems to be a recurring theme with me!) over theological issues. I then went on a pretty long journey (several years) of seriously studying scripture and thinking it through and praying about it, and I eventually came to the realization that the theology my husband accepted was the one I was most comfortable with too. My southern Baptist grandmother, bless her heart, certainly blamed Wes for "corrupting me" but he never pushed me to believe anything, I came to it on my own.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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), I research each issue and the voting records of candidates and make him do the same, or at least read my research with me. We then vote for candidates and propositions that we believe are most in line with what we want for our city, county, state, and nation. It's never all Rep. or all Dem. for either one.
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