<p>To return to the OP - the funny thing is, it’s not necessarily the political belief that’s the problem - it’s the attitude. A few years ago I had a neighbor who was a bona fide, gun-totin’, cigar smokin’, red state redneck - and proud of it. Thing is, we got along great (we still miss the family.) He and my wife would get into raging arguments, which usually ended with him stomping off home - and a few nights later we’d be chatting in the front yard as usual. We still don’t see eye to eye on politics, but I never saw that as a reason to disparage him as a person - or him, me, for that matter (although I did get the obligatory “Anyone who shoots a lawyer is OK with me” message from him after the Cheney incident.) 
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<p>What I’ve seen recently, though, is that the level of bile being brewed on talk radio shows (which is predominantly right wing DJ’s trying to outdo each other with their appeal to gut level emotion) and also the rise of the blogs, is the dehumanization of opposing viewpoints. I remember the same thing happening with fringe lefties back in the 60’s, but it never seemed to extend beyond a small, geographically and socially limited group. Now you have people who might otherwise cut some slack towards people with opposing viewpoints primed to go from zero to outrage in 2 seconds. </p>
<p>If you listen to Rush you will note certain recurrent themes - and the most constant drumbeat is that “they” - the exact cast changes, but is always associated with those strange beasts “liberals” - “want to” do something that is outrageously unjust, and threatens regular, upstanding Americans. My favorite was listening to Rush explain to his listeners how “You see, liberals, they want to divide people. Yes, liberals divide people into two groups to weaken them and make them afraid, so they’ll go along with their program…” [I’ve paraphrased Limbaugh - the comment stuck with me, but I can’t vouch that it’s verbatim.) A steady diet of how “those people” are trying to lie, cheat, and victimize honest hard working Americans understandably makes people angry. And angry people are no fun to be around. If you have a family member who has fallen victim to the hate filled ideology of the Coulters and Limbaughs of the world to the point that they can’t relax and come up for air I honestly don’t know what you can do about it.</p>