Must like complexity. No litmus tests.

SEEKING: One functional democracy. Must like complexity.

ABOUT ME: 38, Jewish, Democrat, Mainer. Believes in civil rights, reproductive freedom, liberal democracy and, yes, Israel’s continued existence. Not interested in pretending those values can’t coexist.

Dating in your late 30s is supposedly hard. Apparently, political affiliation is too.

I’m a Democrat. I still am. But lately, I’ve begun to feel oddly homeless. Not because my values have shifted, but because the conversation around me has.

Maine is supposed to be the kind of place that resists this sort of thing. We like practicality here. We like knowing our neighbors. We pride ourselves on independence, on splitting our tickets, on occasionally electing politicians who seem to confuse the rest of the country simply by refusing to fit neatly into the boxes assigned to them.

But these days, Maine isn’t just Maine. Our politics are national politics. Our Senate race matters far beyond our borders, with control of the United States Senate potentially hanging in the balance. And as national attention has descended on our quiet corner of New England, something else has arrived with it: the increasingly national obsession with making Israel a defining test of American political identity. For Maine’s tiny Jewish community, that can be a strange place to stand. Suddenly, Jews feel less like neighbors and more like litmus tests.

SEEKING: Someone who can criticize the government of Israel without turning every Jewish person they meet into an unwilling spokesperson for it. Must know the difference between a synagogue and an embassy. Bonus points for understanding that “How do you feel about Netanyahu?” is not actually Jewish small talk.

I care what candidates think about Israel. I........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)