As a single twenty-two year old conservative and recent college graduate, dating has been no easy feat. At this point in my life, I have taken advantage of my single status to put my profession on a pedestal. While I watch so many of my peers from high school and college get married and have children, I like to think of this investment in my career as my baby.

However, over the course of high school and my undergraduate studies, I did have the experience of learning the ways political opinions clash and correspond between romantic partners. I will start off by stating that the two most single-handedly irritating things one could say to someone like myself on a first date are, "I have no political opinion" or "I don't vote." The latter is less provoking as it can be justified as a matter of not having enough knowledge of those who run for office. Although, the former causes the most annoyance because it is the equivalent to stating one does not care to educate themselves on national and worldly issues or that they are aware of these issues and hold no position on them. To someone who strives to study this field for a living, this type of voluntary negligence is nearly intolerable.

On the other hand, long-term dating has proven successful in those who hold similar political standards. Each partner does not necessarily have to be a member of the same political party, however, partners that fervently disagree on prominent issues such as abortion tend to find limited success in relationships often leading to crucial arguments and an eventual breakup. We are living in an age where politics not only hold a significant impact on familial bonds and friendships, but may also represent a new likely leading cause for failed relationships.

Next, I will discuss the transparent partner. This is the partner that is most-likely to be influenced by political polarization. In other words, they are unable or unwilling to think for themselves in terms of their ideals. They choose a party or candidate and blindly follow with little justification beyond the ways of their party's representatives. Open-mindedness is a foreign concept to this person and unless they are dating another transparent partner of the same party, compatibility is extremely unlikely.

At this point, you may be wondering "what could be worse than the transparent partner?" The bipolar partner. This type of individual has no understanding of the concept of politics and proceeds to "change" their views daily to reflect whatever the most popular opinion on the issues may be or perhaps which issues their relatives, friends, and loved ones adopt.

Seeing as few people step outside their doors to meet others without the assistance of a computer these days, various political dating websites have sprouted since the 2016 election—one that will go down as one of the most nationally divided elections in U.S. history. TrumpSingles, was created with the intentions of connecting President Trump supporters and those of the right-wing. The site considers matches based upon the individual's stance on certain issues, policies, and legislation while still calculating personality and background compatibility.

In contrast, some argue that Maple Match may represent an alternative dating website for previous Hillary supporters. Maple Match offers Americans an opportunity to connect with Canadians with the intentions of becoming a citizen of Canada as stated on their homepage, "Maple Match makes it easy for American singles to find the ideal Canadian partner to save them from the unfathomable horror of the Trump presidency."

Both sites coordinate so that those that decline to recognize the elected representative as their president may be able to find love and abandon their native country thus expanding the dating pool for those individuals that do hold a certain standard of national pride and patriotism. Regardless, the fact that we feel the need for online sources like these to find a soulmate is outrageous. As previously stated, success can be found in two partners with similar yet slightly differing political perspectives. It is these differences that make a relationship interesting, unique and worthwhile. If your partner's ideals matched soundly with your own, you would have nothing to contemplate or debate.

Despite the numerous categories of partners listed above, there is a boundless supply of people waiting to be met possessing every variety of personality, political view, and ethics all without the need for these online sources. Only through trial and error will you will learn the key to open-mindedness along with which opposing views you can accept that will flatter your own ultimately laying down the foundation for the discovery of your life partner.