The Divorce Rate and Politics?

The political divide in Washington is also dividing households across the country. According to a new study by Wakefield Research, many couples are breaking up and even filing for divorce over politics and President Donald Trump. The biggest culprits in this trend are millennial couples.

New data from the Virginia-based polling firm found that 10% of all married or unmarried couples ended their relationships because of political disagreements. But that number rises to 22% among millennials.

A solid majority of millennial couples have not gone as far as calling it quits, but 42% concede that since the election of President Trump, “they and their partner have disagreed or argued about politics more than ever”:

Since Donald Trump's election, political discourse in the U.S. has been more tense and divisive than ever.

Passionately opposing points of views are not only driving wedges between strangers and even friends, but we are now seeing evidence that this dissent is having a detrimental impact on Americans' marriages and relationships.

The research further discovered that one-third of Americans who did not cast a ballot for Trump or are in a relationship with a Trump voter would consider divorce if their spouse did support the president. This number surges to 43% among millennials.

This isn’t an isolated report either. Citing two other studies, the Washington Examiner reported that Democrats are much less likely to date a Republican who supported Trump. However, Republicans are more likely to give a Clinton-supporting Democrat a chance at romance.

Virginia lawyer Grant T. Moher told the newspaper that he has never seen anything like it in the divorce courts before: “Yes, this is an issue. You’re either with him or against him.”

Unfortunately, this has been a growing development in the U.S. over the last eighteen months.

A Reuters/Ipsos Reid poll released in February showed that 30% of Americans either stopped talking to a friend or family member or ended a relationship entirely because of the election.

A Pew Research Center study found that 47% of Clinton supporters have no friends who support Trump and 31% of Trump backers don’t have any Clinton-supporting acquaintances.

Moreover, 55% of married couples are either Democrat-only or Republican-only.

Gayle McCormick, a so-called Democrat leaning towards socialist, made headlines in November when she reportedly divorced her husband of twenty-two years after she found out he voted for the real estate mogul:

It totally undid me that he could vote for Trump. It opened up areas between us I had not faced before. I realized how far I had gone in my life to accept things I would have never accepted when I was younger.

A week after the election, PhillyMag.com’s Victor Fiorillo noted that he and his wife almost canceled Thanksgiving because his family members voted for Trump:

But this year, we’re presented with a scenario we’ve never encountered before: Our family members are the enemy.

OK, OK, so of course they’re not actually our enemies. But what is true about every single one of our family members coming for Thanksgiving this year is this: They all consider Donald Trump’s victory a victory for themselves, for America and for righteousness. In other words, pretty much the opposite of what a majority of Americans who voted think, and very much the opposite of what my wife and I believe.

I really have no idea how this happened, but it’s real.

Throughout the election cycle, multiple newspapers and blogs published articles outlining how to handle friends and relatives who liked Trump. Here are just some of the headlines:

Slate wrote:

The Post-Trump Thanksgiving - How to share a table with relatives whose views you abhor.

The Washington Post had this:

Can family trump Trump? How to survive political disagreements with relatives this Thanksgiving.

Scary Mommy ran this piece:

The 7 Stages Of Grief When A Loved One Supports Trump

It is as if politics define who people really are. The endless op-eds, stories and studies over the past year suggest that there are no other defining characteristics except politics. And that’s nonsense.

Is it any wonder why there is so much hate and vitriol occurring in society today?

In the end, it looks like millennials have destroyed something else: bipartisan marriages.