Politics and Dating

Since we have just come out of one of the most historic elections in US history with everyone from Joe “the plumber” to Jay-Z showing a new found interest in politics. It seems everyone has a strong opinion on one issue or another nowadays.  The issues range from the Wall Street bailout, gay marriage, illegal immigration, General Motors and yes, torture. It seems like everyone has something they feel strongly about, but do your political views go overboard and shrink your dating options?  Are you only going to date democrats?  How about only dating a “real” conservative republican?  I always thought in “dating”,  people were a little more open to find out about the person beyond the politics first before making a decision.  Yeah right! More and more I’m seeing people  not being as open minded about dating as you think.

I was speaking a group of friends and one of them has very strong views that lean heavily toward the republican side of the isle. So much so that if they are on a date and they find out during the course of conversation they differ strongly politically, they end the date immediately (I’m talking in the middle of salad at dinner immediately!) and go home.  I thought that was way too extreme, but as the group talked it seemed that people who are very political definitely factor that into their unwritten dating rules.  So the unwritten rule for today is:

Unwritten Rule: Politics can play politricks in dating! so be careful!

Questions to YOU:

Have you met someone you were “feeling”, but was turned off by their political views?

How important are politics to your relationships?