Dating across political divides

While I was enjoying a good chuckle at Melania Trump's expense and Stephen Colbert was doing his best 'Hunger Games' bit, Vox decided to do something a little more serious at the Republican National Convention.  Vox reporter Liz Plank asked What happens when you match a Trump and Hillary supporter together? We found out.  To see the experiment, watch Political polarization is making dating worse.

Liz Plank went to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland to see how hard it is for Trump supporters to get a date.

Here's the good news.

We set up Bridget, a 31-year-old Democrat attending the convention, with Ryan, a 27-year-old Republican from Cleveland, to see if they could find common ground.

The date went surprisingly well. Although Bridget had more reservations about dating a Trump supporter than Ryan did about dating a Hillary supporter, both didn’t expect the date to go as well as it did. They talked gun control, immigration, the tax code, and #BlackLivesMatter — you know, romantic stuff. Sure, munching on pizza and wine while they did it certainly helped, but overall, they agreed on more than not.

"It’s interesting that we are politically and ideologically polar opposites but there are things we agree on," Bridget said.

It’s not just Ryan and Bridget who are bad at predicting incompatibility across political ideologies. Studies have shown Americans think they are more ideologically opposed than they actually are.

That's hopeful news.  However, Vox couldn't leave well enough alone.  Follow over the jump for that experiment.

At the Democratic National Convention, Vox made a Bernie and Hillary fan assemble IKEA furniture together to see if they could work out their differences.

What happens when you make a Hillary and Bernie supporter build IKEA furniture? We tried it out to see if unity was possible.

We made a Bernie and Hillary supporter assemble Ikea furniture together.

I tried to do my part to fix the Democratic Party by forcing Katie Halper, a self-described Bernie Bro, and Ben O’Keefe, a Hillary supporter, to perform the ultimate act of teamwork: assembling Ikea furniture, a communication exercise crafted by relationship therapist Ramani Durvasula. But after spending over an hour with them, consensus wasn’t reached nor was a night table built.

That's the bad news.  Here's the good news.

Perhaps the Democratic National Convention was the chaotic family therapy session the party needed. After going through all the stages of grief, the gathering may have allowed some Sanders primary voters to get past the anger and denial and finally let themselves enter the last stage: acceptance.

I hope so.  The future of the republic may depend on it.