When an “anyone but Donald” is married to an “anyone but Hillary,” part six

But his fury has no bounds on those who can work but don’t because they don’t like the work or who will not go the extra mile or work extra hours because they want to make sure they have adequate leisure time.

I understand this. He started working when he was around 12 years old and has never stopped. He’s always worked long hours, long days, and made huge personal sacrifices to make sure his family had what they needed financially.

Yes, he’s been “successful” as long as people recognize “success” comes from a lifetime of hard, hard work and a significant number of risks. And he is still working hard, well on the other side of “retirement” age, although now there is more emphasis on play that he has ever given himself before.

I do occasionally suggest that his white/maleness has been a help to him in getting him started so there were some barriers he never faced. He reminds me that he came from a working class background and was never handed anything. I retort with, “yes, but your parents valued education and did everything they could to make sure you got a decent one” (mostly private Catholic schools). I’m afraid this argument has not gotten me anywhere, although I still think I’m right.

But as I’ve noted in the last couple of columns about this, the two of us are not talking politics much these days. I refuse to watch Fox TV, his favorite. If he turns it on and they start their “Nasty, nasty Hillary” ****, I simply and quietly leave the room. No words are necessary.

I read the New York Times and get my “Donald is going down” fix there but have ceased from sending him articles. At one point, when he was about to say something exceedingly critical of Hillary, I stopped him by saying, “If you want to go there, you will have to listen to me dish up dirt on Disgusting Donald and I don’t think you want that.”

So we both intentionally treat each other with kind and generous respect, knowing we can’t enter each other’s political worlds but choosing to believe the best in one another nonetheless.

We continue to explore our married life together with joy and hope. In this less-than-a-year-old marriage, I’ve seen him though a foot surgery and complex healing process, and became the family chauffeur for four months. He’s seen me through a “simple” cardiac procedure that ended up completely throwing me for a loop and tenderly cared for me. We commiserate with each other over needed dental care as we are both dental-phobic and paying for it now.

We both give thanks for each other . . . and we both have learned the value of silence over certain topics. I am voting for Hillary in November. And I promise to restrain myself from grabbing the mail first each day and destroying his early mail-in ballot!

This is a series of the ongoing saga of a newly married couple with radically different political views. Part one is here. Part two is here. Part three is here. Part four is here. Part five is here.