It may not have cost YOU anything, but someone paid the bill. Other taxpayers, I assume.
My daughter was born in the US and her hospital bill was $300k. I paid $0, not even a co-pay. In fact, I received $470 per month as SSI for her. Nurses and therapists came to my home after she came home for more than a year.
I agree that I thought there was a somilar thread not too long ago.
Fortunately, our immediate family is all politically aligned. There is a nephew and a cousin’s son who are not, but we don’t talk politics. At. All. One was smart enough to realize he needed to chill on social media and deactivated his facebook account.
Our immediate family is fairly close in views. Not identical but tending to the same part of the spectrum. We have extended family that have very different views. Somehow everyone got along just fine over the holidays with no mention of politics.
Yes, yes, yes. It drives DH nuts but makes for some VERY lively discussions, and I love that my extremely well-informed political junkie DH can barely keep up with our son. DH is often horrified, but I just laugh as I remember ourselves at that age trying out extremes. Our son is still shaping his world view and still a bit wet behind the ears. He’ll get there. 
Young people are still very idealistic. The biggest difference in my family is that living a few more years has made me more moderate, understanding that some compromises are necessary and that life is imperfect 
@twoinanddone , of course, taxpayers paid for it. Of which my husband and I were.
MODERATOR’S NOTE: Be very careful about your posts - don’t drift into political commentary.
-I was born on the left before I knew what it’s called in English (no political/social expectation influence)
-Hubby was born and raised in an ultra-conservative environment until he went to college – now more left than I am
-DD and DS are liberal all on their own, we gave them in-depth non-biased economic and social questions (as much we possibility can) – yep, lefties alight.
-All hubby’s friends and colleagues are liberal.
-FIL was ultra-conservative until 2016. He is a self-identified redneck and very proud of it, now call himself a moderate redneck and vowed to vote for anyone but T (I think he tried so hard for us to love him, we told him we love him no matter what)
-Most of my local friends are conservative and voted for Trump. I love them just the same.
-My absolute best friend is conservative and voted for Trump solely for tax cut reason. I love her fiercely it doesn’t matter to me one bit who she voted for. We made a pack that no matter who we voted for we will be best friend forever. She is also a very good friend of one of the republican presidential candidates. The conversations with her are very interesting. She is the only republican we could talk to about politics with positive outcome.
What I’ve learned is that you cannot change anyone’s mind. Everyone has to come to the conclusion in their own time. No amount of convincing or preaching is going to cut it. Shouldn’t even try.
My H & I have both changed our political views over the span of our lives. Our views were diverging from those of our parents when we were raising our kids, and they were raised listening to our comments on things. At this time, it seems like their views are aligned with ours, but because we don’t discuss in-depth, I suppose it’s possible they may feel differently on certain things.
I avoid discussing politics with my brothers, and I definitely avoided talking about politics with my dad when he was alive. The guys in my family are notorious for believing their views are the only correct views. I don’t argue, because it’s not going to change anyone’s mind.
I am the exact opposite of the continuum from my siblings, their kids, and my now-deceased parents. The differences are painful for me, mainly because they kind of slip snide comments into the conversation. If they could be respectful and we could agree to disagree, it would work. But they imply that I am not a thinking person, despite the fact that I have much higher educational degrees than they do. There is some distance from them as a result of this, though I doubt they are aware of it. It would be better to avoid the topic completely and focus on our common areas.
I envy those who can achieve comfort in one political philosophy. I cannot. I see value in listening to and thinking about different perspectives. I guess my political stance is best described as an appreciation for diversity of thought. Makes life interesting, but uncomfortable.
I just wish my dad were here so I could discuss politics with him. He certainly shaped my world view and he was thoughtful to the end. No knee-jerk opinions from him.
My kids know I pretty much despise politics. Very interested in most of the underlying issues though. Happy to discuss those as long as anyone wants. Move it to politics and I am out. Their views are similar to those of my wife and me on many things but not on all. Would rather they thought about things rather than join teams.
My mother was the big political hack in our family. Argued with her for years about several issues. Never got anywhere. Decided I didn’t want to spend the rest of my limited time with her arguing. Rest of family avoided political issues when she was around to keep the peace. Occasionally one of us on our way out the door would lob in a political grenade and then head out. Would take the rest of the family a bit of time to cool things down. She no doubt would have been entertaining (in limited doses) this cycle.
We are very much on one side of the aisle and my kids are similar, but even farther from the mainstream. We discuss some of these differences (they supported a different candidate during the last primaries) and can do so reasonably respectfully. But most of the time we do not change our opinions.
They grew up hearing us discuss politics and the issues of the day, the importance of voting and engagement, and what our views are on the major issues. They saw us reading the newspaper and know the background music to NPR radio shows. One side of the extended family is very similar (except for one family) and we have lively political discussions around the holiday table. One of the kids will sometimes comment how thankful he or she is to have family with similar views as many of their friends go home and have to deal with family members that disparage their opinions.
At the office, however, it is the opposite and I have learned to just keep my mouth shut and rant to my similar-minded office friends. At times, I can’t even walk into the lunch room without listening to remarks that are often inaccurate and negative about issues I feel strongly about. In the past, I was more vocal and now some of the guys try to egg me on. But it does no good to engage, so I don’t. I also have a couple of very good friend who are on the other side, while most of my friends are not. I can discuss some issues with them and we can agree to disagree, but I have not been able to really figure out a way to respectfully discuss things when our views are essentially opposite and theirs is based on information that is not (in my opinion) entirely accurate. They likely feel the same way about my views.
I have one college kid who is completely aligned with me (we even run a Facebook page for that candidate in our state) and another who is 100% the Yang Gang and he drives me crazy! (but in an endearing way). Christmas was interesting…
I don’t think that b/c someone is left or right that they don’t see the value of the other side. They see it and understand it (whether they want to admit it or not). But when it comes down to “what would you do”, that’s when we differ.
H is very much to one extreme. I lean the same was as him, though am more moderate.
I think D and S are more moderate like I am, though still in the same camp.
Depends on the relative temperaments. I’m moderately liberal and my dad is a Trump voter. We argue regularly, but he’s an easygoing guy and it’s always a good-natured discussion. besides, I know more than he does and he thinks I’m smart, so I usually win At the same time, my MIL is a Republican who doesn’t even like Trump, but she becomes very passionate and upset when talking about politics, so with her I avoid these topics completely.
@yucca10 wrote:
“I know more than he does and he thinks I’m smart.” = I would like to vote for you Dad.
I’m on the same moderately liberal wavelength as DH, so we can talk policy and politics to each other for hours on end. DD was a libertarian but now considers herself a socialist, but still hangs with libertarians (boyfriend’s influence). We talk to them fairly regularly, and always get an earful. When we do get in a word edgewise, it usually is to get them to consider issues with their positions. Always civil, though.
Not so much for aunts and cousins, who tend conservative with few exceptions. We see them rarely and usually stay away from disagreeable topics.