AITAH: I am calling off my engagement after my partner revealed he is MAGA.
The OP has been in a long-term relationship with their fiancé since they met in college. The OP is a highly successful nurse earning close to $400,000 annually, while the fiancé has struggled with consistent employment, currently relying on gig work despite the OP paying for him to attend nursing school years ago.
A significant rift formed as the fiancé became increasingly vocal in support of the MAGA movement, contrasting sharply with the OP's liberal values and long-held beliefs regarding women's rights. After weeks of intense, one-sided political discussion, the OP ended the 11-year relationship and asked him to move out, leading to the fiancé accusing the OP of ending things over 'just politics.' The OP now questions if they were wrong to end the engagement over these deeply divided core values.
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Dr. Eleanor Vance, a specialist in relational conflict and value alignment, often notes that 'Political beliefs are rarely just about policy; they are deep indicators of one's view on social hierarchy, fairness, and the inherent worth of others.'
In this situation, the conflict appears to extend beyond typical political disagreement. The OP highlights several concerning patterns: the fiancé’s inability to maintain consistent employment despite support, a shift toward ideologies that undermine the OP's stated values (like women's rights), and the alleged past comments minimizing women's value. The fiancé's response—labeling the breakup over these issues as 'unfair' and 'stupid'—suggests a failure to acknowledge the seriousness of the OP's concerns, equating value clashes with trivial differences.
The OP correctly identified that a foundation for a future family cannot be built when core ethical frameworks are misaligned, especially when the OP stated she cannot rely on him financially or emotionally. While 11 years is a significant commitment, prioritizing long-term psychological safety and value congruence over sunk costs is generally a healthy boundary-setting behavior. The path forward for the OP involves accepting the validity of their decision based on revealed incompatibility rather than succumbing to guilt over the relationship's length.
REDDIT USERS WERE STUNNED – YOU WON’T BELIEVE SOME OF THESE REACTIONS.:
Users didn’t stay quiet — they showed up in full force, mixing support with sharp criticism. From calling out bad behavior to offering real talk, the comments lit up fast.
The OP feels that the fiancé's political shift and his dismissal of their concerns—such as joking about women losing their worth—revealed irreconcilable differences in fundamental values, not just surface-level political opinions. This realization overrides the significant emotional investment in the 11-year history of the relationship.
The central debate revolves around whether differing political ideologies, when they touch upon core beliefs about social equality and personal respect, justify the termination of a long engagement. Was the OP justified in prioritizing deeply held values over relationship duration, or was this an overreaction to a situation that could have been managed or overlooked?