I will support Obama if he promises  

How's that going to work? 🙂
I have a family member, an actual blood relation, who falls into the political category of your boyfriend and I can barely stand to be in his presence when he starts preaching about the right. Toss in home space issues and all I can say is good luck!

ROFL
How it works is a mystery to me. He pulls me to the center, I pull him to the left. He definitely appreciates Modernism, but if it were solely up to him he'd live on Beacon Hill with a giant chandelier and oil portraits of dead civil war generals.
Luckily for him I grew up in an old Colonial house, so I can definitely appreciate the style - I just find it too fussy for my personal life. I think you can do a good blend of styles - I'm certainly not going to recreate my house in a solely mid-century style - i'm going to do what works. It just becomes a lot more complicated when you have to balance different things.
We've got a guest room/study - so maybe he'll get to decorate that 🙂

I believe maison Jansen did...
I believe maison Jansen did a room or two in the white house in the 60s 70s.Their style was either french louis the umpteenth or slick modern>Ive never seen photos of what they did there but maybe its modern.

I find
it odd that my American friends here judge people's taste by their political persuasions..
I really can't see that happening here
Not good, not bad..just different

Robert
Unfortunately much of American politics boils down to how well politicians can relate to "ordinary folk". This (polls have shown) is one of the reasons Mr. Bush is in the White House - he seems like the kind of guy you'd like to have a beer with.
In furniture terms that means the president needs to embody what the "ordinary folk" deem "fancy"...which usually means Colonial/Federalist/Georgian. It's also in keeping with the historical nature of the White House itself - built in 1790s in Georgian style.
Also pertaining to image - politicians need to be seen as solid, earthy, not given to the changing whims of style and decor lest the appear wishy-washy. Even a style like Modernism, based on logic and simplicity - a seeming natural choice for a politician - could come off as cold and uninviting, austere.
The City Hall of Boston is a beautiful example of Brutalism in the US (altho it riffs heavily on Corb). It is a solid, imposing structure that has been described colorfully as a building like "a drunken Aztec picked up a pyramid, shook it about, and stuck it in upside down". Thank you John Silber for that eloquent and racially sensitive quote.
I don't think my boyfriend's taste in furniture relates to his politics, nor do I judge him for it (the furniture...I judge his politics all the time) I simply dont think Georgian style is particularly suited to the semi nomadic existence of the two of us as apartment dwellers.

And that beer would be...
A Bud Light, of course.
Polls indicate that is America's most favoritest beer.

OK !
Very different here!
I don't count many, but some, Conservatives amongst my friends, but they are just as likely to be Design Addicts as Labour voters I think

Here 's one possible explanation regarding the political/design taste nexus
Yesterday's history and tomorrow's a mystery and since so much of modern design appears to be predicated upon an optimistic, clean, hopeful look towards the future, a belief in a better tomorrow, it seems that the forward looking "Left" would naturally gravitate towards the modern design.
Whereas the "clinging to the past" Right would lean towards design that looks like colonial America when those in charge were your garden variety White Anglo Saxon Protestant Males, and there was no acceptance of Gays, Blacks were field hands, women knew their place, and the government would legislate power over a woman's body, and on and on.
Of course there are no absolutes in this equation, but it does seem to break down along these lines, as some desperately cling to power.
So, after almost 8 years of non-stop fear-mongering, from a right wing evangelical power structure, quite honestly we are ready to feel hopeful again and more importantly I think, we are ready for a change. I hear that a good part of the rest of the world feels the same way. 🙂

Thanks
for showing that elevational shot of the city hall, a favorite building. I lived in the state when it was built and dreamed of a video or photo collage that would have been composed around the score of Poulenc's Concerto for Organ, Strings and Tympani. Powerful and sweet by turns ! Viewers here will have to imagine the red brick plaza and base elements, contrasting with the creamy precast parts of the building.
It became fashionable, in Boston if not elsewhere, to deride this structure almost from the time that it was built. I like it far more than our "pyramid' office tower here in San Francisco, which was assailed at first but became a "beloved landmark." I could only hope the same has happened in Boston, but I'm not sure. . .
Thanks for that, BTM. As I watched Al Gore speak the other night, I lamented again the fact the we didn't have him leading the nation these past eight years. We may yet live to regret that loss very deeply. Eight years we couldn't afford to lose. . .

big tv guy...
your words are serving as a catalyst for me this evening...
your descriptions characterizing "left" and "right" are understandably tidy, but they appear conveniently stereotypical rather than conclusions formed by critical thought and humility.
it can be successfully argued that some fall within those and perhaps other prescribed boundaries, yet the quest to assign black-and-white labels to a great many others forces the myriad shades of gray toward poles which are not altogether accurate and which foster unnecessary division.
i am learning that people are much more complex than the categories we tend to assign to them. to be sure, politics are inherently polarizing; the election process calls for us to stand on one side only. yet part of the unfortunate fallout is that we can easily tend toward an acceptance of similar dichotomy in other facets of life that are not well-served in doing so.
just a couple of weeks ago, a good friend of mine told me "mercy triumphs over judgment." his point was that love make plenty of room for people's differences. that is, people are much better served by acceptance than by analysis. good stuff.

kdc I agree with everything you posted
And yes I have stated the divisions in very broad and stereotypical ways and say as much;
"Of course there are no absolutes in this equation, but it does seem to break down along these lines, as some desperately cling to power."
I'm also somewhat constrained by a desire to be brief. I can however say that living here in Florida, a decidedly red state, I am confronted by these issues on a daily basis so my statement comes with a tremendous amount of critical thought and analysis tempered by a personal humility born from a desire to see government "work" again.
Obviously as it states at the top of this thread, I support Obama, and for some of the very reasons you mention, a desire to live in a less polarized society, which I believe one side offers. One issue alone points to the truth of this in that they don't believe in telling a woman how to manage her reproductive organs, some at the other end of the spectrum would make it an imprisonable offense. It has been said, that If men bore children, choice would be enshrined in the Constitution.
I know this isn't really the place for this discussion but it is an issue close to the bone for me as I, along with 18,000 others in my county, did not have our votes counted in 2006 because the electronic machine knocked our congressional pick off of our ballots. I will close with a similar sentence to your closing words from Dr. MLK " I choose to go with love as hate is too great a burden to bear" or words to that effect, as division is not my aim.

tv guy...
thanks for your very thoughtful reply. your reference to dr. king's poignant statement is both fitting and appreciated.
i think this particular upcoming presidential election has produced a heightened sense of stress and anxiety in our nation. so much is at stake--not the least of which are the feelings of despair and disenfranchisement among those whose candidate ends his race in defeat.
hopefully a change in the house will bring about a realization of some ideals we all hold in common.

SDR
This past year Boston's mayor Menino put forth a plan to move city hall from this location and build a new building on the waterfront. This property would then be sold to developers with the intent of destroying the building and putting in a skyscraper. Menino is kind of a jackass like that.
I'm very much in the camp of keeping City Hall where it is. Menino's plan moves the center of city business away from the city center, to a location that is accessible by car and a single busline. (the current locale is accessible by two differen subway lines, bus lines, and good old fashioned roads)
However, as much as i love the building, I have to disagree with you about the plaza. I think the plaza is a scorched wasteland that seriously needs to be torn up and planted with grass. Or trees. Or anything that is vaguely lifelike. The plaza is the first step people encounter when they are trying to do business with the city. Greeting them with a poured concrete fortress rising above a cracked barren plaza doesnt exactly inspire confidence or hope.
Also - there has been a lot of debate about how to fix city hall. Aside from the mayor actually giving the funds needed for the building upkeep (Menino witholds the funds from the city budget because he hates the building) there have been many plans to reconfigure the existing structure. My personal idea would be to see a glass pyramidal structure added to the top. This would provide a sense of aspiration and decrease the current sense that the building looms over you. Of course if Menino keeps getting elected we may never realize any of the proposals.

this thread is good entertain...
this thread is good entertainment. from my experience(not perspective), it seems all of my more pompous 'intellectual type' friends hold the view that those interested in art carry a lack of interest in politics. as if the mere influence of art permeates about them(us) so strongly that reason and priorities are aloof. i find it both hilarious and frustrating. but the point being, it's never seemed to me that conservatives are pompous and overstep their boundaries, moreso those who bury themselves in reason for the sake of arguing reason(intellectuals). i actually know a few on both sides of the argument. however, i will agree with the sentiment of conservatives having shite taste in design. i personally know not one who likes good design or cares enough to explore whether or not they like it. ironic as it's not as much the case in regard to art or music but design is another story.