Re: The Bachelor 17 - General Discussion - Thread #1

by dw_a_mom Wed Mar 20, 2013 4:33 pm

biglove44 wrote:I'm curious, what do you guys think of couples with different political beliefs? Is it that big of a deal?...Cause I wouldn't be able to do it.

My parents were politically opposite, even though my mother registered with my dad's political party. That was about as far as he could order her around ;)

I never considered politics a deal make or a deal breaker, but it is nice to be enough on the same page with my husband that I can ask him to tell me what to vote for when I'm too tired, overloaded or just plain confused to decide for myself ;) Ideally we decide together, and don't always go exactly the same.

The thing is, people do change as they go through life, so it is much more important that you know how to negotiate with each other than it is to actually agree. Even if you are the same today, that may not be true down the road.

by pavalygurl Wed Mar 20, 2013 4:39 pm

I have friends of all political persuations, but when it comes to a partner, I want a guy who shares my core values. And for anyone who doesn't think politics = values, let's think about: contraception, how our taxes are used--for defense or for educating our kids, whether our friends down the street who happen to be gay are permitted to marry, how much maternity leave we can expect, etc, etc, etc. Life= politics in soooo many ways. That's what I am trying to get at. I will now return to our usual programming... :Smiley:

by MVMom39forever Wed Mar 20, 2013 7:43 pm

pavalygurl wrote:I have friends of all political persuations, but when it comes to a partner, I want a guy who shares my core values. And for anyone who doesn't think politics = values, let's think about: contraception, how our taxes are used--for defense or for educating our kids, whether our friends down the street who happen to be gay are permitted to marry, how much maternity leave we can expect, etc, etc, etc. Life= politics in soooo many ways. That's what I am trying to get at. I will now return to our usual programming... :Smiley:

Well, my husband is a registered Republican who happens to be pro choice, pro education, pro contraception and believes gay should have right to marry. I don't think there is really any such thing as a cookie cutter Republican or Democrat anymore - especially when so many issues to debate.

We know Sean wants to abstain from sex before marriage and Catherine supports him on that. We know that Catherine is a vegan and Sean supports her on that. We know that both attend non denominational Christian churches while their respective parents seem to identify with other religions. I guess we can speculate all we want by trying to stereotype what someone from Seattle believes/supports vs. what someone from Dallas believes/supports but all we'd be doing is speculating.

by pavalygurl Wed Mar 20, 2013 7:48 pm

I was just responding to someone's inquiry..no harm intended

by Guest Wed Mar 20, 2013 9:15 pm

pavalygurl wrote:I was just responding to someone's inquiry..no harm intended

This is general discussion not the fan thread so don't worry about posting your thoughts about anyting. This is not the gush on SeanCat thread. This is actually what this separate thread is for to discuss openly without fear of hurting anyone's feelings. :Smiley:

by Guest Thu Mar 21, 2013 12:26 am

MVMom39forever wrote:
pavalygurl wrote:I have friends of all political persuations, but when it comes to a partner, I want a guy who shares my core values. And for anyone who doesn't think politics = values, let's think about: contraception, how our taxes are used--for defense or for educating our kids, whether our friends down the street who happen to be gay are permitted to marry, how much maternity leave we can expect, etc, etc, etc. Life= politics in soooo many ways. That's what I am trying to get at. I will now return to our usual programming... :Smiley:

Well, my husband is a registered Republican who happens to be pro choice, pro education, pro contraception and believes gay should have right to marry. I don't think there is really any such thing as a cookie cutter Republican or Democrat anymore - especially when so many issues to debate.

We know Sean wants to abstain from sex before marriage and Catherine supports him on that. We know that Catherine is a vegan and Sean supports her on that. We know that both attend non denominational Christian churches while their respective parents seem to identify with other religions. I guess we can speculate all we want by trying to stereotype what someone from Seattle believes/supports vs. what someone from Dallas believes/supports but all we'd be doing is speculating.

To be fair, I think your husband would be considered socially Liberal and fiscally Conservative. I think that if your social politics are very different, it is very hard to make a relationship work. Not impossible, but very hard. I do agree with you that we are all just speculating - I have often been surprised by people's political beliefs!

by Guest Thu Mar 21, 2013 1:48 am

There's a bio out there. One of Sean's favorite books was written by Bill O'Reilly so we can safely assume he a Republican. Catherine is tougher. Being from Seattle, we could assume she's a Democrat, but she was raised by a Catholic mother, so maybe not.

I'm so glad I found a discussion board. On some of the other forums, if you do anything but gush, they jump all over you.

One thing that I am curious about is her ex-bf- Grynch the rapper. He seems like the polar opposite of Sean.

by Guest Thu Mar 21, 2013 3:02 am

chasing pavements wrote:
pavalygurl wrote:I have friends of all political persuations, but when it comes to a partner, I want a guy who shares my core values. And for anyone who doesn't think politics = values, let's think about: contraception, how our taxes are used--for defense or for educating our kids, whether our friends down the street who happen to be gay are permitted to marry, how much maternity leave we can expect, etc, etc, etc. Life= politics in soooo many ways. That's what I am trying to get at. I will now return to our usual programming... :Smiley:

To be fair, I think your husband would be considered socially Liberal and fiscally Conservative. I think that if your social politics are very different, it is very hard to make a relationship work. Not impossible, but very hard. I do agree with you that we are all just speculating - I have often been surprised by people's political beliefs!

Good stuff, thank you for your input. At the end of the day, as long as neither of them are extreme in their views, I think (hope) they'll be okay. I'm always hopeful of relationships that come from this show. Even when I know some of them don't have a shot in hell, the romantic in me still wants these couples to stay together.

I saw an interview Sean did with a christian host after Emily's season and what I took from it was that he's very careful with who he gives his heart to. He's very guarded. He's those people who believe that the person he gives his heart to, is the person he's going to marry (in another interview he admitted that he didn't feel this way towards Emily/couldn't be himself). So, for him to say he's certain that Cat is "the one", he wants to spend the rest of his life with her, "when you know, you know", "She's what i've been looking for and so much more", I kinda believe him (at least for now). It seems like he's sooooo in love with her. He's so open/sincere about it. IMO, it would really suck a.ss if they didn't work out, especially for him because of the whole religious/one person created for me aspect. Just imagine going from, she's the love of my life to, uh, we're not engaged anymore, especially with the whole God thing behind it would be pretty painful/embarrassing.

Their little love story is so foreign to me (maybe that's why i'm drawn to it). They live in the same city but separate apartments, read the word together every morning, keep it PG-13 (that's some serious discipline, especially if you see each other everyday)...are they really going to do this until their wedding day? Is this what Catherine wants? It's sweet but it's just so odd to me.

by Guest Thu Mar 21, 2013 3:12 am

I think this is foreign for Catherine too. I wish he would give her more time to figure out if this is really who she is or if it just looks appealing at the moment.

by Guest Thu Mar 21, 2013 3:46 am

biglove44 wrote:
chasing pavements wrote:
pavalygurl wrote:I have friends of all political persuations, but when it comes to a partner, I want a guy who shares my core values. And for anyone who doesn't think politics = values, let's think about: contraception, how our taxes are used--for defense or for educating our kids, whether our friends down the street who happen to be gay are permitted to marry, how much maternity leave we can expect, etc, etc, etc. Life= politics in soooo many ways. That's what I am trying to get at. I will now return to our usual programming... :Smiley:

To be fair, I think your husband would be considered socially Liberal and fiscally Conservative. I think that if your social politics are very different, it is very hard to make a relationship work. Not impossible, but very hard. I do agree with you that we are all just speculating - I have often been surprised by people's political beliefs!

Good stuff, thank you for your input. At the end of the day, as long as neither of them are extreme in their views, I think (hope) they'll be okay. I'm always hopeful of relationships that come from this show. Even when I know some of them don't have a shot in hell, the romantic in me still wants these couples to stay together.

I saw an interview Sean did with a christian host after Emily's season and what I took from it was that he's very careful with who he gives his heart to. He's very guarded. He's those people who believe that the person he gives his heart to, is the person he's going to marry (in another interview he admitted that he didn't feel this way towards Emily/couldn't be himself). So, for him to say he's certain that Cat is "the one", he wants to spend the rest of his life with her, "when you know, you know", "She's what i've been looking for and so much more", I kinda believe him (at least for now). It seems like he's sooooo in love with her. He's so open/sincere about it. IMO, it would really suck a.ss if they didn't work out, especially for him because of the whole religious/one person created for me aspect. Just imagine going from, she's the love of my life to, uh, we're not engaged anymore, especially with the whole God thing behind it would be pretty painful/embarrassing.

Their little love story is so foreign to me (maybe that's why i'm drawn to it). They live in the same city but separate apartments, read the word together every morning, keep it PG-13 (that's some serious discipline, especially if you see each other everyday)...are they really going to do this until their wedding day? Is this what Catherine wants? It's sweet but it's just so odd to me.

I do believe that he loves her, but to be precise, he also said that he was in love with Emily and was ready to marry her DURING the filming of the show. It was only afterwards that he said that he was never really himself around her, and that they would not have worked well together. Which is fair enough - many contestants fall in love under the "Bachelor spell" and realize afterwards that they were never in love. And, I don't know how much of what we saw was scripted (him deciding between Catherine and Desiree after hometowns, the indecision about who to propose to, etc), but it should be 100% clear to you who your wife is more than a week before you propose. But, what I heard over and over again was how he could see all four women as his wife.

I like Sean, but much of what he says sounds repetitive and scripted to me. I always root for love, but I'm skeptical.

by Guest Thu Mar 21, 2013 4:02 am

chasingpavements, I hear you. I'm hoping he learned from his experience on the bachelorette and became more aware of his feelings during the bachelor. The whole HTD Cat vs Des thing still irks me though.

Personally, I don't think he's a motives/scripted kind of person. He doesn't remind me of Jake Pavelka. I do think that he's extremely naive though.

I'm rooting for them. You'll see me gush over their photos and cheesy articles until things don't work out, ha!

by terabithia Thu Mar 21, 2013 6:37 am

chasingpavements wrote:
I do believe that he loves her, but to be precise, he also said that he was in love with Emily and was ready to marry her DURING the filming of the show. It was only afterwards that he said that he was never really himself around her, and that they would not have worked well together. Which is fair enough - many contestants fall in love under the "Bachelor spell" and realize afterwards that they were never in love.

Sean also said that he and Emily agreed in the fantasy suite he wouldn't propose at the FRC, they didn't think their relationship was ready. What we hear them say on the show isn't always what they actually said (Frankenbites), or they are saying it to fulfill their contract and help TPTB put on a show. Keep the audience guessing! People considered "good guys" and "above it all" like Chris Lambton did the same thing, as have many others. They understand it's just a tv show (that occasionally results in a real love match that lasts longer than 6 months, but that's not the point).

We don't know what's real, what's scripted, or what was edited together. They can show someone answering questions about an ex-girlfriend or a hypothetical fiancee and edit it to make the audience believe he's talking about the Bachelorette lead. Trying to figure out what was real and what was fake is pretty much impossible, so I don't take anything said on the show as the whole truth.

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