The Friendship Debate - Politics, Differences & Surviving the Election | The New Girlfriendology | Be a Better Friend | Inspiration, Girlfriends, Friendship, Girlfriend Gifts

Win or lose, we go shopping after the election.
Imelda Marcos

One of my biggest regrets happened four years ago during the 2008 Presidential election. I don’t like to talk about it. I really, really don’t. It hurts, it embarrasses me, it makes me deeply sad. Actually, I haven’t written about it on Girlfriendology in the past four years – it’s not the side of friendship we like to promote here. Our goal is to inspire friendships, not focus on the negative side of female friendship.

On the negative side, I lost a very good friend over the last election. I blogged that we voted differently but were still friends. I will just share that some thought I said/implied she was wrong and I was right.

It’s something I really regret because soon afterwards her cancer progressed and we really never were able to bridge that gap in our friendship and get past our political differences. The friendship that had lasted decades lost that debate. And the sad thing was, both of us lost in that election. We each lost a dear friend, regardless of whose candidate won the election.

It’s a tough time to be on different sides than our friends. It’s challenging to give each other respect for our opinions. The policy of being there for our friends is tested when we place signs in our yards, stickers on our cars and share Facebook status updates cheering on our favorite candidate.

I won’t let an election cause a damaging debate with a friend. I will take a strong position for my girlfriends and vote for friendship. I hope you do too. Vote – definitely but don’t regret the friend(s) you lost over politics.

p.s. I vote for just going (shoe!) shopping with your friends, regardless of who wins or loses!

For more election inspiration …

Go Vote – with your girlfriends!

Bipartisan, Calming Girlfriend Gifts

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