Dating in 2019 isn’t easy. Right now, in the cesspool of political tribalism, social media, and the extreme polarization of the partisan divide, dating has become stranger than ever.

In the Trump era, hostility for opposing parties has intensified to radioactive levels. In January of 2017, the New York Times reported that more than ever before, parents want their sons and daughters to marry within political party lines. The dating app Tinder conducted a study and found that 71 percent of its users said differing political beliefs were a deal breaker. To help people get ass based on ideology, new political dating apps have popped up such as TrumpSingles.com and BernieSingles.com. Politics has always been a contentious issue but today it has invaded all aspects of our lives. It has become the new music, art, and religion. It feels like everyone has not only an opinion but a deep, vested interest that is worth throwing away a potential relationship for.

I am not passionate about politics. I think that someone’s political views are the dullest thing about them. I’m a registered Democrat, but I have voted Republican in the past. I did not vote in 2016 because I did not want to pull the lever for either candidate. I have never fawned over or admired any politicians. My requirement for a partner isn’t whether they consider themselves a Conservative or Liberal, but that they are open-minded. So, when I started up a romance with a man I had known as an acquaintance for years, my first text to him was a lone link to New York Times columnist Bari Weiss’s lecture “Seven Dirty Words”.

Maybe I was testing him?

He responded with a rambling yet neutral reaction to Weiss’s powerful speech, then after ellipse asked, “Can we hang out soon?”

An intense and passionate love escalated after that text. There was undeniable chemistry between us that we couldn’t ignore. Three days later we were on my stoop trying our best not to have sex in public. Two weeks later, he told me he wanted to marry me. Our relationship escalated into a combo of lovemaking and rough sex balanced with flawlessness I’ve never experienced before. We talked and stared at each other like lovesick teenagers until 5 AM, planning our future together. I was falling hard! We were not sleeping. We were not talking to our friends. We were barely coming up for air. It was fucking magnificent. Everything was perfect—until we started talking politics.

At first, there were little hints that our ideologies weren’t so in sync. While I was ranting about the insanity of the latest radical leftist protest, he stood there with a puzzled look on his face.

“But Leah, social justice is important.”

“I know,” I said. “But social justice warriors are making a mockery of social justice.”

“Social justice warrior has a negative connotation to it,” he said. “That’s what Republicans do, don’t you see? They take something that’s not a negative and play with language to make it become that way.”

I rolled my eyes. Yeah, no shit, I thought to myself. Because the social justice warriors are so fucking negative.