My Best Friend is a Trump Supporter [View all]

[louis c]

My best friend, who I've known since childhood (I'm 65 years old and he's 70) is also my second cousin.

He's in real estate and has a plumber's license, worked as a pipe fitter at GE for about 20 years, and is semi-retired. Lives a good life and has a very good, comfortable standard of living. Lives in Boston 7 months a year and Hollywood Fla. (rents) for the other 5. We've made homemade wine together for 20 years.

He helped me find the house I live in 17 years ago, which I bought at auction. He asked for nothing in return. The equity now is $250K. I will be forever grateful.

We drink our wine together and watch the Patriots every Sunday, until he goes to Florida. I vacation once a year in South Florida, and we go to dinner at least twice while I'm down there. He was the best man at my wedding 15 years ago.

We cannot spend a day together for the last year, without a screaming argument. Even the things he said were important to him and Trump is working against, he no longer cares about.

He used to hate big money in elections. I tried to explain to him that the Supreme Court appointment which sets Citizen's' United in stone for generations guarantees that for the rest of our lives..

He railed against the Debt and the Deficit. During the Obama years, I tried to explain to him that the deficit was cut in half and he would counter with it still increases the Debt. Now, he doesn't want to hear that his guy in increasing both the debt and the deficit in order to provide tax cuts for the rich.

He talks constantly about "illegal immigrants" and immigrants, as well as African Americans, getting assistance. I counter with the fact that he and many of our friends (All White) work under the table and I point out that hypocrisy. That usually ends in a shouting match.

He believes global warming is a hoax, he doesn't believe in evolution, the Russia investigation is a "witch hunt" and he regurgitates all the Fox News talking points.

I love him as a brother. No one, outside of my wife, is closer to me or has done more for me, or me for him.

We used to see each other once a week, now it's once a month, and we still argue.


I know the obvious solution is to agree to avoid talking politics. We tried that, but it eventually enters our discussions. I work for a labor union and he has a sister-in-law on Mass Health. If I talk about work or he talks about his family, it inevitably devolves from there. If others are with us, they will eventually talk about the issues of the day and then we are off and running. We try to keep our conversation on the sports teams in Boston (lucky for us, we have a lot of winning teams), but that only works for a short time. It was impossible yesterday to not talk about Hurricane Harvey and the impending storm, Irma, bearing down on either us (North East) or Florida, where we have family and friends. Up comes global warming and there goes the afternoon.

I was wondering does anyone at DU have a similar problem and how do you deal with it.