A Fox News Host Wrote a Bestselling Romance About Liberal Women Falling for Republican Men. I Read It So You Don't Have To.

"Recent polling shows that the younger you are, the more you want your romantic partner to be politically aligned with you. This bothers a lot of people, including Dana Perino, a Fox News host and former George W. Bush press secretary, who currently has a book in its second week on the New York Times bestseller list."

"Perino, who previously wrote an advice book for young women, told the Wall Street Journal that although she's never had children of her own, she thinks of "all of these young people as my little nieces ... My hope for all of them is, 'Please don't worry your young life away.'""

""I want the message of this book to be that politics can be what you're interested in. It might even be what you do for a living. But it doesn't have to be who you are. I urge everyone to wear your politics lightly," she told the Wall Street Journal."

"Romance is a good genre for a writer interested in this kind of ostensibly apolitical project that actually seethes politics from every pore. Just as late-19 th-century Americans gobbled up love stories about white Northern men and white Southern women, yearning for postwar national harmony, so people trying to figure out our hyperpartisan era have tried telling stories about liberal women loving conservative men."

Recent polling indicates that younger people more strongly prefer romantic partners who share their political views. Dana Perino’s romcom, Purple State, centers on liberal women who fall for conservative men and presents politics as something to engage with without letting it define personal identity. Perino emphasizes reassurance for young people and encourages them not to spend their lives worrying. The genre of romance is portrayed as a vehicle for political themes, using love stories to imagine that intimacy could resolve broader conflicts. Examples from popular media show recurring pairings of liberal women with conservative men, reflecting attempts to bridge hyperpartisan divides through relationships.

Read at Slate Magazine