Political Polarization: Obama vs. Hillary.

[fickle]

About two years ago, I ended up friends with greyhawk. It was a strange friendship, entered into a little warily because we're at opposite sides of the political spectrum on practically every issue. He's a small-c conservative and I'm a liberal, fairly far to the left but we managed to have a reasonable conversation about politics, and became lj-friends.

Why am I bringing it up now?

I've noticed that this election isn't affecting my circle of friends and myself by polarizing us against Republicans. Instead, we're being polarized against each other.

If you're for Obama, you're for Obama. Hook, line and sinker. You can't take any criticism of him, and you defend every mistake he makes.

If you're for Hillary, you're for Hillary. Hook, line and sinker. You can't take any criticism of her, and you defend every mistake she makes.

I have friends whom agree with me on pretty much every political point. We're all pro-choice, anti-death penalty, pro-gay marriage. But when it comes to the Obama versus Hillary split, it's shut-up-and-don't-talk-about-it.

I have friends who will toss me links to YouTube videos of Obama's ads, but shut me down if I bring up the fact that I support Hillary.

So my question is, how did this happen? When did it get to the point that it's easier to talk politics calmly with conservatives than with people who actually support my stances?

I'm not a fan of Obama because personally, I think his foreign policies suck. He tried to act tough when he said that he'd be willing to order strikes against Pakistan, and he's made no mention of working with the UN. That doesn't mean that I'm not pleased with his record on abortion rights, to take one example. It just means that I don't want to vote for him, and that I don't think he'd make a good President.

It doesn't mean that I'm incapable of having a calm, rational discussion about the candidates and their relative merits/flaws.

On The Issues is THE best source I know for researching the stances of the candidates on different issues. Go check it out.

Comments

[cairnsy.livejournal.com]

Interestingly enough, I've always gotten far more of a 'shut and don't talk about it' attitude online from my 'non-conservative' friends than from my supposedly 'conservative' ones. Issues here aren't so black and white, for example I'm not seen as conservative in New Zealand because I'm anti-abortion *or* seen as liberal because I'm pro gay marriage, there just isn't such a distinct line. Your average New Zealander is easily a complete mix of beliefs that seem to pigeonhole people in the US especially as left or right. On my online journal, I can talk about my negative view on the Iraq war and have people disagree with it nice and calm manner, but the moment I mention my thoughts on abortion I’ve been told by friends I adore to ‘shut up and don’t talk about it’. Even worse, I’ve been told that I’m ‘allowed’ to have my opinion as long as I don’t try to in any way change laws to match it, protest publicly about it, or even SPEAK out publicly about it. I think there is this general belief that people who follow liberal political ideas are more open minded, but that’s simply not the case. Everyone is just as good or as bad as each other, regardless of their political stance.