CEDAR PARK, Texas — Texas neighbors Marne Litton and Tasha Hancock have been close friends for nearly six years.
Litton supports President Donald Trump. Hancock supports former Vice President Joe Biden. Despite their political beliefs being polar opposites, the two remain amicable. They are using their friendship and opposing viewpoints to prove a point -- at a time filled with vitriol and divisiveness, people can still respect one another even if they don’t agree.
“I respect how she votes, and she respects how I vote. It’s that simple,” Litton told CNN.
Their friendship started before they learned about their politics.
How do they do it?
“My husband and I have a special needs child,” Litton told CNN. “During difficult times, Tasha was always there for us. She would decorate our garage with signs and leave things in the fridge for when we returned from the hospital. And I did similar things for her when she needed it.”
To prove a point in positivity, the pair sipped mimosas and shared photos of themselves with their candidate’s yard signs enjoying each others company in a widely viewed post on social media recently.
“People were unfriending each other (in a neighborhood Facebook group) saying ‘I hate that person because they have this or that political sign in their yard,’” Hancock told CNN. “I thought, you don’t even know that person. How can you hate them?”
The pair know their friendship and positive message is not a panacea for the times, but they hope it helps ease tensions.
“To the people who are just very set in their ways, we’re not saying you have to be best friends,” Litton said. “We’re just asking people to be more tolerant and not to judge so quickly. Just because one person decides to vote for one political party, does not make them or their family necessarily bad people. That goes both ways. Politics are important, but they are not everything.”