Darn Those Democrats

Why are some lies and liars more acceptable than others? How come when Bill Clinton, then a sitting president, had sex in the Oval Office with an intern, his supporters didn't care and said his sex life was his own business, but when Donald Trump, then a private citizen, was heard on tape merely saying a celebrity could "grab women by the pussy" and get away with it, those same people labeled him a sexual predator? I am seriously asking: Does one's political party define them? In this country, it seems to. 

On a personal level, I once had a friend named Mary. I gave her gifts at Christmas, encouraged her desire to paint and helped her enter art shows, hosted her for dinner countless times (always providing gluten-free foods for her), and repeatedly watered her large backyard garden for two weeks in the heat of the summer when she went on vacation. Yet none of that stopped her from suddenly, without warning, ending our friendship because she didn't like the things I blogged about. She also was quite upset that I used plastic straws, one time actually screaming that I was "killing the planet!" Mary also said she found the way I think unacceptable, and if I didn't change my thoughts we could no longer be friends. (I didn't and we aren't.)

I am a complex person politically, as are most of us. I started out as a Democrat, switched to being a Republican, and now consider myself an Independent. More important, politics hardly matters when it comes to friendship. Will that person care for you when you are ill, drive you to the airport, listen to your problems and offer advice if asked, watch your pets when you travel, lend you their car, etc? The essence of friendship is how you care, not how you vote.