Would you date someone on the total opposite side of the political spectrum?

Would you LibDem/Labour girls date a Tory/UKIP guy, and vice versa? What do you guys think? Are political views important in finding someone you love?

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Reply 1

SophieSmall

I guess it depends on a lot of factors. Like I for example definitely could not be with someone who would support the cut of absolutely all benefits as they would seem to me to have no compassion whatsover. But someone with different views on the EU? Could get over it.

Reply 2

Rakas21

Original post by CanadianBeaver

Would you LibDem/Labour girls date a Tory/UKIP guy, and vice versa? What do you guys think? Are political views important in finding someone you love?

I'm a Tory and so long as they are not extreme left (i.e. they felt strong enough that the children could not go to a grammar or private school ect..) it wouldn't bother me. I don't need a clone, i'd just be glad they had political interests.

Reply 3

miser

I didn't think it'd be much of a big deal until I did - looking back I think our core values were in conflict.

Reply 4

felamaslen

I don't care about political labels like Tory vs. Labour or socialist vs. capitalist, but I wouldn't date anyone who was a totalitarian or supported totalitarian regimes.

Reply 5

William Pitt

Original post by CanadianBeaver

Would you LibDem/Labour girls date a Tory/UKIP guy, and vice versa? What do you guys think? Are political views important in finding someone you love?

I consider myself a Social Democrat. I'm Finnish and I study at Oxford. My views are somewhat left of the Labour Party but closer to Labour than to Greens.

I would never be able to date a UKIP supporter; believe it or not but I literally get sick in the stomach and feel a lot of repulsion (the exact opposite of attraction) whenever having a conversation with UKIP person.

I think I'd be much more comfortable around free-marketier and also a social liberal than around a statist economist and social conservative. Of course, social conservative and free-maretier combined is the worst.

What is most repulsive is nationalism, dogmatic anti-EU slogans, racism and xenophobia. Even clericalism isn't nearly as repulsive.

Anything from "Kenneth Clark Conservative" leftwards I'm totally fine with. Would I date an absolute left-wing revolutionary like Rosa Luxemburg or Che Guevara being a Social Democrat? Yes because we would share the same philosophical paradigm and much prescriptive objectives; different means to the same ends. This is something that just would not exist between me and, say, UKIP supporter.

Reply 6

Yael

I'd not date anti-Israeli person, but I also would struggle to date Zionist like Beitar (very right-wing zionist) or Poale Zion (very left-wing zionist).

I'd date all party supporters in Israel apart from extreme left and extreme right. Shas is as far right as I'd go, Meretz is the furthest left I'd go.

In the UK the 3 main parties are fine (prefer Lib Dem/Labour), but definitely not UKIP, Celtic nationalist parties etc.

Reply 7

CanadianBeaver

Original post by miser

I didn't think it'd be much of a big deal until I did - looking back I think our core values were in conflict.

Core values are what usually forms political views. Because political views encompass so much of who you are in terms of beliefs, I do find it hard to go marry someone who's political views are totally different from my own.

Reply 8

The Juan

I don't think I could ever date a lab/lib/green gal, it would be hell. I'd pursue a sexual relationship with lab/lib no problem though. I'd go as far as smile at a green. If I get too close I might be accused of rape.

Reply 9

Endo

Original post by CanadianBeaver

Would you LibDem/Labour girls date a Tory/UKIP guy, and vice versa? What do you guys think? Are political views important in finding someone you love?

Only if they'd be willing to debate it. Not only do I quite love an impassioned debate, I can also tolerate the whole spectrum of views. Many people will hear something they disagree with strongly and will use that to cast aspersions on the character of those expressing said view, when all I am driven to do is to ask: why? To question, to invite reasoning, rationality, cogitation, evidential foundation, a deeper context. And very rarely do I ever meet someone who disagrees with me that is willing to take the same approach; usually once the misconceptions that essentially form their whole attitude on a particular subject are obliterated within a couple of minutes, it is much more preferable to kill the discussion than to re-evaluate their misguided view.

I wouldn't want to be in close proximity to a political coward, to someone who asserts their views but invokes a swift retreat in the face of being asked to justify and explain said views.So, I would most enjoy some frequent juicy debates, and if they are willing to engage then I can forgive plenty of political divergences. I think I'd probably just believe that eventually I would convince them otherwise... which sounds awfully arrogant, doesn't it? But there we are xD

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 10

Dalek1099

I think it depends on where you are on the spectrum I don't think people who have extreme political views can date people who aren't on that spectrum.I'm extreme left and I would struggle to date someone on the right.

Reply 11

Mick.w

Original post by CanadianBeaver

Would you LibDem/Labour girls date a Tory/UKIP guy, and vice versa? What do you guys think? Are political views important in finding someone you love?

my political views are important.
but I have to say I would rather talk to someone from the other side who can make good arguments than someone from the same side as me that can't.

i favour intelligence and reason more than anything.

i think in many cases morals are quite common and theres a political split in to how best achieve those moral goals.

Reply 12

username1221160

Probably not as I find people with very different political views tend to have very different value systems.

Reply 13

DiddyDec01

Probably not. There would be arguments without a doubt because of my life style. It just wouldn't work.

Reply 14

Endo

Original post by Mick.w

An astute post, I think peeling back the layers of how people categorise their views reveals that such categorisations are often utterly inadequate to convey their actual, personal opinion - if they even hold one, that is, because as you said it's all too common to be confronted with people who are hopelessly unconvincing when explaining their views, more often than not I think because they are a direct import from elsewhere, literally latching onto a notion that is trendy/in fashion/morally viewed/expressed by people they know/e.t.c and just spew back out some garbled half-formed pseudo-reasoning. Certainly, they belong to the entire political spectrum and indeed I'd regard them as the most influential voting block - the stupid.

Reply 15

Manitude

I'd consider it. I suppose I'd consider myself centrist so there's no immediate opposing view except extremes on both sides of the spectrum. I get along with people with extreme left wing views and fairly right wing views, but simply getting along with someone and being in a relationship with them are very different. I'm not sure I know anyone who I would call 'extreme' right. I know a couple of people who support UKIP and they're fine to get along with and don't really talk about politics much. But I wouldn't call the likes of UKIP or even the BNP particularly extreme compared to other groups and parties that exist.

I think for me it would boil down to how vocal they are about their views and whether they accept that not everyone agrees with them.

Reply 16

Edamamebean

Mother worked for and has voted for the Lib Dems for a number of years, voted Green prior to that. Father increasingly supportive of UKIP.
Happily married for 17 years. I'd say it's entirely possible :smile:

Reply 17

felamaslen

Original post by Endo

I'm like this too, possibly because my political views are in many ways the opposite of what they were when I was growing up (not that I had any kind of informed political outlook then), so I can appreciate that people's opinions need not be set in stone. I always worry though that when I expose my political views, people judge me as a person for them, when in reality I do so only because I like a good debate. To me, it is when you can look straight at somebody and tell them that you think they are dead wrong, that you really respect them.

Reply 18

jaffacake111

I think it is closed minded to automatically say no on the basis of political beliefs (or religious or whatever) if only because it excludes an awful lot of people but in all honesty I would really rather not. Passion is good but it depends of course on an individual's fanaticism because that's when it starts to infringe on other people.

Reply 19

RosyPearl

No I would only date someone with the same political view as me..part of the reason why I broke up with my ex was because we had heated arguments all the time which affected our relationship