My wife and I have been married for 6 years now - we live a fairly happy if fairly mundane life. I work a regular 9-5 job and she works from home. We own two cats and have no children. We connect strongly in our love for nerdy things like video games and fantasy, and share an appreciation for the world around us - though it is hard to get out and explore the world, especially lately with travel restrictions in place.
Lately, with the 2020 elections looming near, more political discussions have been coming up in our peripheral. To avoid getting too specific on things, my wife leans considerably more heavily towards a particular political spectrum than I do - while I tend to be fairly moderate. This is usually fine. She also tends to absorb her information on politics from more radical sources - which I don't mind either.
The issue lately has been that she will bring up these political discussions when it has some impact on our life - which it occasionally does - and I have to offer some response. Usually I try to be as rational as possible with my response, but I admit that I tend to be skeptical of what she presents to me - and I feel like even when I agree with her, the reluctance I have comes off and it creates a pressure point between us that causes us both stress.
I try to stay well informed on things that could potentially impact us, and don't push many political points myself because they rarely have a significant impact on our lives, but I often feel like I'm expected to take her political statements at face value and run with them - and while I don't outright discard what she says, I feel like my lack of immediate support for her viewpoints may be driving us apart as a couple.
We have been under more stress lately in general too - with both of us at home, we've had to learn to deal with having each other around all the time, and while being closer to my wife has been wonderful, there's also the added stress of knowing that we have to share that space and have that open door to discussions about potentially uncomfortable or controversial topics all the time.
I don't want to shut down my wife's political interests just because I disagree with them, but I don't think it's right to just agree with everything she says out of hand, and when I voice that disagreement it leads to us debating with one another, when I know she really just wants to share with me what's been going on in her head during the day. What's the right way to handle this sort of sticky topic, when I don't entirely agree with her but don't want to shut her down either?