A new take on Bipartisanism
Politicians are are always talking about bipartisanism, but what about relatives

They say you can choose your friends but you can’t choose your family. I am unfortunate enough to live in a family with mixed party, and religious backgrounds. On my Mother’s side are my Liberal Catholic Democrats, on my father’s side Conservative (sometimes racist) Protestant (never been able to really pin down a denomination however my Dad was raised methodist…. I think) Republicans. Not only are they Democrats and Republican they are very far left and very far right. As far from the middle as you can get in many cases.

Now it is obvious this could cause problems. I don’t think that my parent’s parents have met more than 4 times. That doesn’t stop me and my immediate family from meeting with them though. My Opa Walt (my Dad’s father) can be quite an interesting to talk to sometimes. He keeps track of tons of things somehow and knows what everyone that is even remotely related to him has done in the last 100 years. But when he switches into a political conversation I know exactly how George Bush managed to be elected President. However I don’t know if he doesn’t realize the political stances of those around him, if he just doesn’t think about it, or if he just doesn’t care. There is something to be said for how to speak in mixed political company. Quite frankly you don’t need to bring up politics at all!

I hang out with quite a few different people, some that I don’t always agree with but I don’t bring those things up, it makes it easy. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t discuss things by any means. Debate is a wonderful thing, but there is compromise and a sharing of ideas in debate. That is the polite considerate way of going about things, you concede that someone is right, that they have a valid argument. Really it’s about consideration of other people. I’ve always thought that you should be polite and try to make someone comfortable and to be friendly. You can’t be polite and have a friendly comfortable conversation if you are uncompromisingly taking an opposing view.

So please, do yourself and me a favor, either have a polite compromising debate (I’m not saying that you can’t compromise to not talk about a subject if you can’t agree), or stay away from topics when in company with mixed views.