“We Can Still Be Friends”……..

Something that I saw a lot of people posting on social media this past week were posts about how who we voted for shouldn't effect friendships. I don’t agree with this at all. Politics aren't like other areas that people can simply agree to disagree on without consequences. This is not something as simple as not liking the same type of music or believing in a different religion, this comes down to policies and people in government that can drastically change peoples lives. If you are actively voting for candidates and policies that will strip away my rights and my friends rights, we are not friends. Simple as that.

The concept of middle ground in politics sounds wonderful on paper but is not always realistic. While there are certain areas that I feel can be compromised on, there are many others that cannot. Abortion rights for example is one of them. There is no middle ground that can be found in this area because either abortion will be legal or illegal. You can’t try and make exceptions in cases of rape for example because then that would require the woman to prove she was raped to begin with. Gay marriage is another one. You cant find common ground on wether or not same sex marriage should be legal because the outcome is either a yes or no answer not a gray area one.

I have friends that are very different from me in so many ways wether that be race, gender, sexual identity, religious beliefs and even our personal outlooks on life itself. None of these friends of mine, however, have political beliefs that are much different from my own. I want women to have autoimmune over our own bodies. I want LGBTQ+ rights to exist in all aspects of our country. I want Climate Change to be taken seriously. I want institutional racism and police brutality to be dealt with. I want common sense gun control to be implemented. I want access to free and or affordable healthcare for every U.S. citizen. Every thing I just listed deeply effects my life as well as the lives of my friends and family and I am not ok with people voting for policies and or candidates that simply don’t give a shit or actively work against these things. We all have the right to believe in what we want but the second that someones beliefs intrude on my safety and freedom is when i’m done pretending to be friends. Friends don’t vote against their friends self interests when it comes to safety and basic human rights. To pretend that politics does not matter all that much is to come from a place of privilege. I can co-exist with people who vote against human rights issues but I will never call them a friend.