When my father left the Democratic Party decades ago because of their support for racial segregation and punitive taxation my grandfather didn’t talk to him for three years. My wife and I were also on different sides of the political fence. Our political debates were more about methods and means and less about personality traits or wild conspiracy theories. For example, my father is a Doctor and helped save her brothers life once. My father doesn’t like socialized medicine and is very vocal about it so family discussions focused on what positive things we should do to improved the current situation. We are a family that cares for each other first, and how we vote is a distant second. My father and my wife had many discussions about Hillary’s health care plan 15 years ago, but my wife would have never shown rude disrespect to the man who saved her brothers life, especially on a subject that he was way more qualified to understand. So she listened, pointed out where she disagreed and the discussion became one of how the health care system could be saved, not who was the biggest fool.We don’t allow our opinions to dominate the fact that we are a family that loves and depends on each other. My grandfather and father eventually reconciled, but our family has never forgotten the time wasted on politics and work hard to make sure it never happens again.
