Spicy Herbs

in my heart Eddie used to be a Republican. he grew up Catholic, he joined the military, he's from El Paso and that's majority republican, he and Shannon did not discuss abortion as a possibility with either Chris or the Maybe Baby from season two. I think he voted for McCain, and then he voted for Romney, and then he voted for Clinton bc Trump changed the game for him. I think if you asked Eddie what his political party is, he'd try to casually change the subject, and if you pressed him, he'd say "I guess I'm pretty moderate," but then he wouldn't say if he was a moderate R or a moderate D. His political opinions have slowly changed over time, though, individually on each issue, and his opinions now are much closer to a moderate democrat than a moderate republican's, although he doesn't totally recognize that shift.

Shannon was registered Republican but she voted Democrat in every general election and just didn't tell anybody about it.

Hen's a Democrat. Toni's a Democrat. Karen's a Democrat, but slightly to the left of Hen. (They don't actually disagree on any of the issues, but one of Hen's best friends is a cop, and Karen's best friends are astrophysicists. Hen's like "you have to look at everyone as an individual," and Karen's a little judgier and, in my read, a little more "here's the bright line in the sand" about everything than Hen.) Hen sees the critiques of the party, but she believes in societal triage, and voting blue is like putting a bandage on an arterial bleed. She and Karen had a "In this house, we believe" sign in their yard for years.

Chim is also a Democrat. But he has a dark libertarian past (we all make mistakes in our early twenties,) and he definitely said some stuff to Kevin and later to Hen that makes him wince now. He's also definitely accidentally forgotten about some local elections, and only guiltily remembered after seeing Hen's "I voted" sticker on facebook (they've been friends for so long that they DEFINITELY shared a facebook era together.)

Maddie's a Democrat. She still has a "Stronger Together" Hilary sticker on her car bumper. She's forbidden Buck from talking to her about politics, and every time he breaks this rule, she sends him links to NPR. She votes D all the way down the ticket, but then she gets to the judges and she's like oh, shit, I forgot to google the judges, and then she guiltily just leaves that section blank and confesses to Chim what she's done as soon as they're both out of the voting booth, and Chim is like oh god I did the same thing, and then they look at each other wide-eyed and they're like let's not google it, let's not google it, let's make a donation to Kamala Harris right now.

Bobby was a registered Republican for most of his life, but he became a Republican when the gulf between the parties wasn't nearly as stark, and in Minnesota there's also less of a gulf between the parties, or there used to be, and he winds up with more progressive beliefs than Athena, who's definitely a Democrat. he's the kind of guy whose Catholicism and belief in law and order and a generally just world made him unironically think Reagan and H W were good presidents, but who looks at everyone downticket on their own merits, and his belief in good sense, social good and social wellbeing for things like climate change and funding school lunches and stuff like that means that over time he starts voting for more and more Democratic mayors, school board candidates, and city councilors. When he moves to LA, Trump's in office, and Bobby fucking hates that guy, so he changes his political affiliation officially.

Athena, as mentioned, is totally a Democrat, but she's the exact opposite of Bobby: her party affiliation is staunch, but her general beliefs are more conservative than Bobby's: she believes in law and order, punitive justice, obviously she's very pro-police, she believes in the justice of The System and the checks and balances of, like, the Supreme Court and the judiciary and all that, and this means that while she always votes for the Democratic presidential candidate, she winds up voting for more conservative city councilors, mayors, congresspeople, etc.

Michael Grant: Democrat. Further to the left of Athena, but in a way that was basically invisible to both of them for years, because I don't think they talked about politics all that much. Has moved further to the left post-divorce and as a result of his relationship with David.

May Grant is a leftist who is probably going to vote for Kamala Harris, just like all four of her parents and parental figures, but got into a shouting match with her mother over voting undecided in the 2024 primary.

Buck is registered as an independent, but didn't vote for most of his twenties. How could he vote! He didn't have established residency, like, anywhere! (His absentee ballots kept being delivered to Philip and Margaret's house, and it was something else they were disappointed in him about.) And then he wasn't sure how long he was going to stay in LA, so he didn't register to vote there, either, and then it kept not coming up until suddenly it was 2020 and Maddie was like BUCK. YOU HAVE TO VOTE, and he was like oh shit oh my god yeah I should vote, and ever since then he approaches voting as a full Clipboard Buck situation, where he INTENSELY researches every single candidate so that he can be maximally informed. He accumulates a huge sprawling notes app note full of information and Takes about every single candidate for comptroller as well as presidents and senators, and some of it is good and some of it is informed by Joe Rogan and some of it is informed by Pod Save America and some of it is informed by Bari Weiss, so obviously some of it is bullshit, which drives Maddie crazy. Buck sends this list to Eddie the day before every single election. Eddie votes for every single person Buck endorses. EFFECTIVELY this means that since 2020, Buck and Eddie have voted Democrat downticket, but with a few weird choices in the mix (Andrew Yang, undue attention paid to RFK jr before the brainworm revelation, heavy consideration of Jill Stein, etc.)

Taylor Kelly: Democrat, duh. She wore a pink hat to the Women's March. Her whole family's Republican. She went to college and her politics changed, and this gave her something to fight with her family about that wasn't her family tragedy, so that worked out great. She deleted Buck's Political Endorsement Notes App Note as soon as he sent it.

Tommy is still registered Republican. Like Bobby and Eddie, he kind of inherited it, and then he was surrounded by a lot of Republicans in the military and the LAFD, and by the time he realized he didn't support 100% of Republican policies, he'd already voted for Bush, McCain, and Romney. Sorry to say but I feel like he's a lower taxes are good kind of guy, plus I think he has more conservative views on policing and the justice system, just like Bobby and Athena. He did not vote for Trump, and he considered voting for Obama the second time, but he thought Arnold Schwarzeneggar was a fantastic governor. Basically votes libertarian. Thinks Buck's Political Endorsement Notes App Note is hilarious, but does not actually use it to vote.