Republicans Are Big Mad At A Report That Most Young Democrats Wouldn’t Be Friends With (Much Less Date) Them

We’re a nation hopelessly divided, as we’re constantly reminded. Both sides hate the other. Both sides blame the other for why they hate the other. But a new report by Axios reveals that young people on one side, the left, is a lot less willing to break bread — or, for that matter, go on dates — with the other. And now the party whose leaders don’t understand how cancer works or keeps telling them to put themselves in harm’s way is furious that people they regularly demonize, or worse, don’t want to make out with them.

The poll was conducted exclusively with college students, so it’s not necessarily indicative of Democrats or Republicans of all ages. Still, it seems to confirm what two decades of culture wars — and just straight-up wars, launched primarily by Republicans — has done to those who’ve spent their whole lives living with it.

The numbers show that, while the number of young Republicans who would fraternize with the other side is not exactly high, it’s astronomical compared to how young Democrats feel about them:

5% of Republicans said they wouldn’t be friends with someone from the opposite party, compared to 37% of Democrats.

71% of Democrats wouldn’t go on a date with someone with opposing views, versus 31% of Republicans.

30% of Democrats — and 7% of Republicans — wouldn’t work for someone who voted differently from them.

But there’s more! Women appear to feel more strongly about this than men. And no wonder: Republicans have spent the last 20 years trying curtail women’s rights, most recently by naming enough far-right justices to the Supreme Court that Roe v. Wade is very likely to be overturned after almost four decades.

The report enraged one side more than other, which is to say it pissed off Republicans, who felt it confirmed that Democrats aren’t quite the party of tolerance for not wanting to hang with people who keep voting for a guy who doesn’t like beer.

Others lamented the end of an era that may have definitively ended, after a long, slow decline, sometime around 2016.

Others said the quiet part loud, which is that they were most worried about losing dates with people they strongly dislike.

To those on the left, however, it made total sense.

Others were shocked that young Republicans didn’t feel the same way about Democrats.

Then again, young Republicans always have that hip dude who drops videos in which he looks like crap.

(Via Axios)