Regarding the recent midterm elections, a friend posted on Facebook something to the effect of "Whether you vote red or blue, I'll still be your friend because I'm an adult" accompanied by a bunch of comments in agreement.  I guess it's sort of refreshing to hear a somewhat positive thing about politics since there's usually so much negativity. 

But here's the problem: It's really hard to separate politics from the person, because political affiliation says a lot about a person's beliefs and motivations.  I guess it might be different if there were more political parties, or at least if political parties held fewer official platforms.  But when you cast a vote for a candidate, you get everything that candidate's political party stands for, whether you want it or not.  And that's important because whether you intended to or not, you're signaling your values with your vote.  You might vote for a candidate because of their foreign policy goals, but you end up getting all their party's anti-gay marriage stuff thrown in too.  And maybe you don't mind because it doesn't affect you.  But rest assured it affects someone, perhaps a friend of a friend on Facebook.  So you might continue to go about your day on election day, being an adult and being friendly, while your gay friends have to worry about whether they'll still be allowed to have a family plan for health insurance or whether they'll have visitation rights in the hospital. 

So while some people might feel like they can be friends with people regardless of who they vote for, I have a problem separating politics from the person. #politics