No, but I generally dont discuss them with other people, unless they seem capable of having a reasonable discussion.
Most people I know have their worldview framed by the prevailing media narrative, which I dont really subscribe to, sotheres a disconnect anyway.

My mother is quite conservative, listen's to Mr. Drug Addict every day at noon, my dad is neutral, but leans Democrat because he was a skilled tradesman in a Union until retirement. Most of the rest of us are pretty Liberal. We just don't talk politics around my mother, it upsets her. It's hard to, because we know she is living in FOX and Rush La La land and has a totally different set of facts to help form her opinions because of it. She's 68 years old now, not going to change her, and it's not worth causing her to be upset.

West Michigan is ultra Conservative so I have many Conservative friends. Doesn't cause too many problems since most of my Conservative friends make informed opinions and have arguments based in reality and not in Talking Points Memos from Faux News. One of my best friends teaches at a local college and is as Conservative as they come, and can really debate the issues, but abhors FOX News, Rush, Hannity, and other comedic sources like DRUDGE. No problem having a discussion with him. Another friend I have simply parrots word for word what FOX, Drudge, and Rush have decided were today's talking points. He's not arguing from a position of fact and I avoid politics entirely with someone who is coming from a wholly different reality.

U of M versus MSU causes more friction in my family than Politics. My brother's family is all U of M, my father and I are MSU alums. Specifically my Sister in Law is a U of M grad from a long line of U of M grads and I honestly skipped my nieces Birthday party a couple Sunday's ago, because I knew it wasn't a good idea to watch the U of M vs. MSU B-Ball game over there. She was absolutely classless when U of M beat MSU by 1 point earlier in the season and even more classless after the 28-14 win in Football this Fall. My sister goes to several Michigan games and lives for Michigan Football, but she'll text me congratulations when we beat U of M or "good game" when U of M beats us.

No, but most people I know, even though they might lean very heavily to one side or the other (the extreme case being my friend that spoke at the Democratic National Convention when Obama accepted his nomination), don't buy into the talking head narratives of 24 hour news channels. We all get that there's enough BS to go around and neither side's ideals are realistic.

No, not now.

Most of my friends agree with me that Obama has not done as well as we had hoped, but that he was a huge improvement over Bush, and that the GOP crop all looked like the contents of a clown car accident.

Also since we all tend to be blue collar, we all agree that it's time for the government to stop giving handouts and tax breaks to the rich, and saying it helps the middle class by creating jobs, cause that's bullshit.

Now a few years ago while the war was hot and heavy we used to argue and get a bit heated about whether we were doing the right thing, was Bush just after Saddam, did he make the US a bigger target, etc.

Bottom line is if you can't have a good argument or disagreement once in a while with your friends and still have them as friends, you probably didn't need them anyhow.

I don't have any friends.

nope....you can't win an argument vs a right wing nut-job so it's not worth the effort.

SLICK said:

nope....you can't win an argument vs a right wing nut-job so it's not worth the effort.

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I never believed that the point was to win, but to understand the other person's point of view and point out the inconsistencies.

smayschmouthfootball said:

SLICK said:

nope....you can't win an argument vs a right wing nut-job so it's not worth the effort.

Click to expand...

I never believed that the point was to win, but to understand the other person's point of view and point out the inconsistencies.

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give Rush a buzz and point out his inconsistencies , let me know how ya make out.

SLICK said:

nope....you can't win an argument vs a right wing nut-job so it's not worth the effort.

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As opposed to who? You think you CAN win an argument with a left winger?

SLICK said:

smayschmouthfootball said:

I never believed that the point was to win, but to understand the other person's point of view and point out the inconsistencies.

Click to expand...

give Rush a buzz and point out his inconsistencies , let me know how ya make out.

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You do the same for Ed Schultz and Randy Rhodes, okay?

smayschmouthfootball said:

SLICK said:

give Rush a buzz and point out his inconsistencies , let me know how ya make out.

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You do the same for Ed Schultz and Randy Rhodes, okay?

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Keith Olbermann????

cheeno said:

smayschmouthfootball said:

You do the same for Ed Schultz and Randy Rhodes, okay?

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Keith Olbermann????

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That guy is a walking inconsistency.

Nope...I actually have no idea where my friends stand politically or religiously and I'd like to keep it that way...it's pointless to talk about and not worth mentioning.

SLICK said:

nope....you can't win an argument vs a right wing nut-job so it's not worth the effort.

Click to expand...

+1000

i have a good friend who is die hard conservative republican....i tried once to just simply ask him questions about why he is that way and i didnt get a word in for about 45 minutes. There answer for everything is that theres too much regulations to promote growth and itss all the democrats faults lol.

Our neighbor across the street is a registered lobbyist and lobbies on behalf of what would be considered Republican causes - Insurance, oil & energy, etc

A few on the block choose to make the political stuff an issue and we live in the city of Denver, in a more democratic leaning neighborhood, so it's not common to live by a GOP-issue lobbyist.

But, we're good friends with them, their son and ours play together and we've had a few solid conversations over beers.

What I look for - and what I respect - is an opinion formed from original thought and one that takes into consideration more than tagline , bumpersticker rhetoric. Sadly, politics has been more of an issue in the past 8-10yrs than it used to be.