Apparently, Trump-themed dating sites like TrumpSingles and TrumpDating aren’t doing their job, because a bunch of Republicans are having a hard time finding people to date in Washington, D.C. *cue tiny violin solo*
This really isn’t news in a liberal city like D.C., where about 90 percent of the population voted for Barack Obama in 2008, according to Bustle. For years Republicans working on Capitol Hill and elsewhere in government have had a hard time finding other young professionals who will give them a chance. It’s something HuffPost covered back in 2012. But a new report by The Washingtonian rounded up some lonely conservatives who confessed that finding love in a hopelessly liberal place like D.C. has become increasingly difficult. To even score a date with potential matches, some said they removed their party affiliation and job titles from dating profiles.
On the flip side, some liberal daters in the article confessed to screening photos and social media profiles to find any remnants of a red MAGA hat or hunting gear, to weed out possible conservative matches. Again, none of this kind of political screening is particularly new or shocking when it comes to millennial dating. I chalk it up to being less the fault of a malicious political climate and more of the convenience modern dating, which allows young people to simply swipe past others they don’t really feel like talking to. For young liberal ladies that may simply mean not wanting to spend a pleasant first date discussing abortion rights or our groper-in-chief.
But it’s not like liberals don’t know the difference between good old-fashioned conservatism and Trumpism. “If you’re dating someone and they say ‘I think we should have lower marginal tax rates,’ that’s different than dating someone who doesn’t think a woman should have a right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy,” one single woman who works for a progressive nonprofit told the publication. “There’s a spectrum there.”
Of course, there will always be people who have a zero-tolerance policy, as one man illuminates in a story he shares about going on a date with a girl who later finds out he’s conservative. “She was like, ‘Oh no. First question: Did you vote for Trump?’” the man recalled his date saying. He told her he didn’t, but that he considered himself conservative. “She was like ‘I have to get out of here. I can’t see you,’ and left.”
That might seem extreme, but a guy once ghosted me because I don’t like the Beatles. Guess what? I’m still alive today. The point being, people have always held strong opinions and expectations when it comes to choosing who they want to spend their time with romantically. Still, websites like TrumpSingles, this dating site for Bernie lovers, and one specifically for all who hate Trump do reveal that there is a more partisan approach to dating than possibly ever before, and statistics show that more people on places like Match.com and OKCupid care more than ever before about dating someone they align with politically. Dating has already been shitty for a very long time, and it looks like for Republicans living in a liberal oasis like D.C. it's not going to get any better. Good luck out there guys.
