LISTEN TO TLR’S LATEST PODCAST:
By Kimberly McCurry
It should not be surprising to see an article comparing dating & political parties for those involved in the political process, though someone who has not been politically active may be wondering how might these two social structures even come into being thought of as comparisons. It’s all about relationships.
Relationships in dating is obvious. When two people decide, they would like to spend time to get to know each other better a relationship is formed. When it comes to political parties one would have to take a step back and study the situations.
Early in someone’s political life they may be interested in flirting with other parties. Voting for a party could be considered flirting. You don’t have a commitment in any form, but it doesn’t mean you’re not interested. Moving on to going out on dates would be starting to go to meetings, making connections throughout the party, and even going to different events together.
Becoming part of a committed relationship in politics could be considered to joining the party membership or registering with the state as a certain party. Of course, it is not against all peoples’ nature to continue flirting. Heck, in fact even in some states being in polyamorous relationships with multiple parties (members of multiple parties) are even allowed, like in Michigan.
But have any of us ever been married to a political party? I would surmise one could be. If you look at past elected officials and their families many continue to stay in the same parties even when they are no longer anything like the rest of the party. How does this happen? Well, that is part of what this article will show us. The similarities between dating and political party relationships lie in the reasoning we put more efforts into some relationships than others.
Over the past several years as a personally conservative Libertarian I have come to some evaluations of the parties as if I were looking for a life partner in the political life realm, after all, it would be wonderful if I could find a political party that was a perfect fit. However, as political parties are a combination of thousands of people, none will ever be the “perfect fit”.
Who did I flirt with first? The Democrats, and the Greens. I was fresh out of high school and my parents felt like introducing me to a few people running for offices that they liked. Though I flirted with the Greens I didn’t look at them again until much later when I really started getting politically active.
The Democratic Party will treat you nice, as long as you agree with everything he says. You can’t question his science even though he questions economics. He will even go so far to tell you that you obviously don’t know what you’re talking about, even if your degree is in the field being discussed. Could possibly even call you stupid. Wow, such a nice guy.
So why would I stick around? Well, the Democrat will also say use the guilt trip and make everything about him. That you obviously don’t like him because if you did you would understand and support him. – Um, what about me? Why am I always the one who must cave? Obviously if he doesn’t care about how I feel then he doesn’t care about me. But he uses his manipulative narcissistic personality to try to keep me around until I would feel I had no hope, glad I broke away from that emotionally abusive situation before it actually started as I could see it was going down that route.
Years later I actually started flirting with political parties again. I even started doing my research. What I knew for sure is that I would NOT date the Democratic Party. Welcome Ron Paul, the Tea Parties, and 912 Groups. These were not parties, but in this situation, we could call them speed dating events. These were educational and we learned more about the parties and the current situation of the country.
The Tea Parties really wanted to hook up with the Republican Party. They flirted so bad because they really thought they could change them. But here’s what really happened in when dating the Republican Party. He’s suave and sophisticated, not unlike the doctoral Democrat; however, he focuses more on the corporate aspects of the country than the social dichotomy. So much so he lies through his teeth. He tells you what you want to hear. That he is good and faithful, but he always cheats…with the Democrat no less. But he still constantly swears he will change, you just have to stick with him and he’ll prove it.
How many times can you let him cheat on you and lie to your face? There is a reason why I never purposely membered up with the Republicans. I do not see promise in his words, I don’t see that he is really trying. The only time he tries is when he sees I’m leaving, and as soon as he thinks he has me again, it’s the same pattern every time.
Who else am I going to date if I’m not going to date the blue-collar Democrat or the white-collar Republican? Well, the dating pool is full of fish, even in political terms. Not fitting into either of the old parties I starting researching the other parties that existed.
I wouldn’t even flirt with the Socialist groups. There is no way I was going to be told what to do and split my money with him and not spend it how I wanted to when I wasn’t even sure if I wanted a commitment. The Green Party is fun and informative. He doesn’t care too much about his own needs but wants to help protect the environment and animals. And that’s also what is kind of creepy about him. He is always doing something to get in tune with the universe and strongly suggesting, even saying that someday it will be law, that I participate also because my life will be so much better. I respect you have those beliefs, but I really don’t want to have to do those, and I want to eat my medium rare prime rib thank you. We can hang out and chat, maybe flirt here and there, but you’re just not my type.
The Constitution Party. Polite, traditional, religious. This guy is so nice and there’s a lot of things I agree with him on. However, he can be too much of a stick in the mud. I don’t mind if WE would live our lives that way, but we shouldn’t force everyone to be like us so we aren’t offended. Yes, I agree that we shouldn’t have to change our lifestyles either to accommodate anyone either, but sometimes this guy takes the term goody-two-shoes to a whole new level, and can come out looking like a jerk. Plus because of his goody-two-shoes nature he is kind of boring. Like the Green Party I may friendly flirt, but the Constitution Party is friend-zoned.
The party that made the most sense with their solid belief structure with the openness to learn was the Libertarian Party. Yeah, the Libertarian Party is young, but as anyone who has dated a younger person after a break up – the dating really made me feel special. We seemed to have so much in common. Everything was going great… and then I got to meet his friends. These guys are some of the most immature jerks you could ever meet. They can make how the Democrats and Republicans treated me feel like nothing.
Yet I have stuck things out with the Libertarian Party because I see so much promise in who he can be. But I’m getting tired of waiting for him to grow-up. Especially when we’re around his friends. (The Platform) He says one thing, but when he’s around his friends he takes everything to the extremes and when I mention that the way he is acting is making me uncomfortable he sounds like the Democrat saying it’s my fault and I should not care so much.
I shouldn’t care? I’ve invested 5 years into this relationship and I should not care that when he’s around his friends I see a different person? That he doesn’t take my concerns seriously? Part of growing up isn’t just taking the reprimand for what we do, but responsibility is taking the future into consideration also. How am I or others going to react if he pulls a stupid prank because you feel like it? My friends are wondering how I can put up with his friends and all I can do is say because he’s not like them. But the way he lets his friends treat me should say something about him too.
Will he ever grow up and be the man I know he can be? I really don’t know, and I’m seriously considering seeing others again.
The Federalist Party and the Veterans Party of America are both new guys on the block. The Federalist Party has some good basics, but I’m not sure how put together he is, but I may go and have a drink with him one night to learn more. The intriguing party here for me is the Veteran Party of America. He is actually a lot like the Libertarian Party but does have some more self-control like the Constitution Party. He doesn’t really want to tell me how I should live, and come on – who doesn’t like a guy in uniform? I definitely want to spend more time with him.
In the end, unlike my real life where I have found my match (in the Libertarian Party no less), I feel that the party I’m dating needs to step up his game and realize he has so much potential and that he doesn’t waste it by hanging out with his buddies because the world could pass him by and take me with it.
How would you describe your own political dating experience?
1 comment
… [Trackback]
[…] Here you can find 60846 additional Information to that Topic: thelibertarianrepublic.com/political-dating-parties-just-difficult/ […]