I take politics very seriously and am proud to call myself a registered Democrat. To put it mildly, I’m not crazy about the president and I think it’s outrageous that our country is in Iraq right now. So, when it came time to decide whether, I, Micol, wanted to be with a Republican, a pro-life Republican, I was as torn apart as Bill O’Reilly and Michael Moore.

His name is, uhhh, Mike, and he’s been a very close friend of mine since I’ve been here. When he began to express a more-than-friends interest I went along with it, thinking, hey, ‘he’s cute, funny, nice, and treats me really well’. Last week we went out for root beer floats and when he stopped by the room, my friends loved him and thought he was perfect for me.

What seemed like the beginning of a beautiful and budding relationship was suddenly proverbially thrown out the window after he said he was conservative. My world began to crash around me: why couldn’t I see it before? In retrospect, the signs were there. His WASPy appearance, his love of golf, the fact that Fox News was always on in the background. What a schmuck I am!

After my shock wore off, I was left with what felt like a blow to the stomach and a feeling that I get when I’m about to overanalyze something. I began to wonder, can a relationship last between adamant members of opposing political parties?

Wondering by myself proved far too difficult, so I decided to ask the people that cared about me and knew how close politics were to my heart what they thought. I started with the family and called Peter, “the brother” to ask him what he would do if I started dating a Republican. “If you were to date a Republican, I would make sure you were disowned from the family and given nothing but a piece of scrap metal to part with.”

Thanks, Pete — helpful advice. Arnold Schwarzenegger married a Kennedy for God’s sake. So what exactly was my problem? Was his party affiliation what was actually irking me?

There’s always something,” Leah’s mother said once. The next guy you meet may blow you away, but wait, he has a girlfriend; the next will appear perfect, until you’re in his room one day, he farts, and poof, it’s over. “You’re gonna fall in love with someone and all that won’t matter,” Leah told me.

She’s right: if I’m making his conservativeness such an issue, how much did I like him to begin with? Mike and I have been talking less lately, after this article, we probably won’t talk at all anymore and I’m fine with that. Carrie would call it the “zazazoo.” My friends and I ambiguously refer to it as simply “the feeling.” But it wasn’t there; one day it will be, for a democrat, republican, or other and it will make me feel as great as if I’d drank a cup or two of TKE’s magical punch.

Micol Zweig is a sophomore English and Arabic major.