Views expressed in opinion columns are the author’s own.
The partisanship in this country has become so strong that even millennials can’t kill it.
A recent piece in the Washingtonian describes how millennials in Washington, D.C., are feeling the influence of partisanship personally in the form of swiping through Tinder. Multiple swipers reported that just one “wrong” partisan-related aspect of a profile — whether it be a pink “pussy” hat, a MAGA hat or American flag gear — can completely turn them off. Another article in The Federalist reports that the dating site OkCupid has recently added a question regarding users’ stance on abortion to find more eligible matches.
This got me thinking: Are the labels Republican and Democrat, or liberal and conservative, accurate at describing individuals’ ideologies and essence, and thus their romantic compatibility?
[Read more: We’ve turned American politics into a football game]
People have ideological differences, which is not inherently a bad thing. And not everyone is going to be compatible in any relationship, romantic or not. Some people prefer cats, some prefer dogs; some people value the humanity of racial minorities, and some are Nazis. I am not arguing that we should date people whose core ideology is the complete opposite of ours; I am simply challenging the idea that partisanship is a good way to uncover those ideologies.
Political affiliation can be looked at as a chosen identity — not something that one is born with, but a label that people choose for themselves that best aligns with their desires and beliefs. Political labels, like gender and sexuality labels, are often not completely descriptive of the whole person they’re labeling. Just like being a lesbian doesn’t mean you’re automatically “butch” or masculine, being a Democrat doesn’t mean you’re not racist, and being a Republican doesn’t mean you hate poor people.
Identifying as Democrat or Republican, or as liberal or conservative, is not a bad thing in and of itself. The only problem is when labels become categories, and broad categorization of people allows for discrimination.
Though liberals swiping left on conservative Tinder profiles seems inconsequential, it’s a microcosm of the harshly dichotomous black-and-white politics that is quickly taking over our nation. The influence of partisanship in the U.S. has become so extensive that it is now overflowing into intimate parts of our personal lives, such as romantic relationships.
Regardless of the nuances of ideologies, the labels “Republican” and “Democrat” are too arbitrary to base crucial decisions on, whether on dating apps or in the federal government. Differences in beliefs should not and will not go away anytime soon, but it is important to remember that a jump from the chosen identity of political affiliation to an assumed ideological essence is not a reasonable judgment to make.
Michela Dwyer is a sophomore English and philosophy major. She can be reached at mgdwyer3@gmail.com.
