Reply #17: You can get new friends but

[dmac]

you can't get new family. I have friends on both sides, but definitely gravitate toward the ones I have anything in common with - and more and more, I find I have less and less in common with those on the other side.

But what do you do about family members? People you love with your heart and soul and have so much in common with that it is a huge puzzle as to how you can see things so differently politically? I spent the best part of the last 3 years sending articles, engaging in discussions with 2 of my favorite people in the whole world - both brothers - only to give up completely a couple of months before the election. I finally admitted the futility of continuing to argue - it was only damaging our relationship.

But when I woke up on Wednesday morning after the election my heart sunk because I realized whether we ever discuss politics or not, it will forever be a wedge between us - because they assisted in re-seating this (%#^%#) back in the WH. My mother says everyone is entitled to their own opinions and of course they are - and of course, since it is America, they are every bit as entitled to their views as I am to my own. The unfortunate truth is their views are forcing me to live within a society governed by their views and their views are foreign to me - and their government steps on my rights to live as I want to live - i.e., taking my country into a war that kills hundreds of thousands of innocents, no charity for the less fortunate, all under the guise of compassion and Christianity. If my guy had won their views would still be safe within the society they live. I am so sick and disheartened to have blood on my hands - for we all do as we are ultimately responsible for our Government's choices.