Politics and Romance 

     No bedfellows there, strange or otherwise. Politics cost me a blind-date...and the fella hadn't even met me.

     A friend recently tried a little matchmaking on my behalf. But the plug got pulled when the guy asked, "What're her politics?" I didn't pass. Any winning attributes I might possess were sent to the back of the bus and told to shut up. (And that pun is intended.)

     As bigotry isn't a quality I'm looking for in a person, I didn't care, but it got me thinking about my ex-in-laws and how different things are today when it comes to mixing politics and romance.

     My mother-in-law was Irish-Catholic and a card-carrying, Bleeding-Heart Liberal. My father-in-law a German Jew, who lost family in the Holocaust, and always voted Republican.

     The political rows at their dining table were loud and often. Ears back, heels dug in, nostrils flaring, the games would begin. Neither was bashful about taking aim at the other. Then, suddenly, my mother-in-law would throw back her head and let out a laugh. 

     "What does it matter. I'll pull the lever for a Democrat and he'll shamelessly support a Republican. So both candidates lose in our house."

     In their tug of political war, no one ever got pulled to the other side.

     But my in-laws were just as intransigent in their love for each other. They were happily married for over 50 years...and had three great children...of mixed political race.

     Makes one wonder what might have been between that fella and me if romance had trumped politics.

(258 words)