FRIENDS AND POLITICS

I take my politics very seriously. My husband and I had long since decided that people we knew who talked on the other side of things were not for us and we avoided them whenever possible. We considered them unintelligent and morally a little lacking and not worth our trouble. It was a relief to socialize with others who felt as we do, and have congenial political talk. That wasn't hard to do, since most of the people we know and like are political bedfellows. Dividing into these social groups based on political leanings is not unusual - all over the country people are doing the same thing, I believe.

Now what do you do when you have a friend whom you really like, in spite of her demented political leanings? Do you "drop her" as one of my children say, or do you soldier on and consider it a learning experience? It is a glimpse into how the other side thinks. She listens religiously to several of the radio talk programs I find offensive, she doesn't ever read a major newspaper because they contain nothing but "lies", she brushes aside what you thought were established facts as "that never happened". It's like never-never land. It is impossible to have a logical debate with someone like this, and I would never try.

Now what is this friend really like? I value the friends I make in my new status as "widow". There are not a lot of them because this is not my home town and I don't have a backlog of friends from the old days. She (I'll call her Elizabeth) has been very nice to me, thoughtful and sweet, fun to be with. We have much in common - we beonged to the same college sorority, we go to the early Rite I service at the struggling little Episcopal church, we dress alike and we even look somewhat alike. I love to hear about her Kansas hometown and what goes on there -its a perfect microcosm of the Midwest. She remembers my husband and went to his funeral service. She's fun, a good person. If she just didn't have this flaw.

What do you do in this situation? You can't change her viewpoint, nor will I ever change mine. Are we still friends? It's like the North and the South in the Civil War.