This happens all the time. Unfortunately, someone has to take the high ground in these situations, and it’s usually the conservative of the two. My brother and I have been best friends for life. He’s 2 years older and I always looked up to him.
We were raised in the same loving traditional household. Played the same sports, had the same friends, etc. We both earned 4-year ROTC scholarships and went to conservative-type colleges (him Holy Cross, me Norwich). He was an officer in the USMC for 5 years. I was an Army officer for 23 years. We’re both married with 3 boys each.
He is as a screaming Bernie Sanders leftist. Full-on Trump is Hitler etc. I just don’t get it. He is an engineer project manager for a big defense contractor. We just can’t talk politics. Have to avoid it during all family meetings. We agree on only 2 topics - guns and Abortion. We’re both pro-life and pro gun. I know that causes him problems in his crew of leftists, so at least there’s that.
Bottom line, I will always love him and want to hang out with him, but we have both quietly agreed to not try and convert one another. Just wash your hands of it and take the high ground.
I’ll tell you something telling.
My daughter is a screaming liberal BUT neither of us voted for Trump. She would LOVE it if I had voted for Trump. She could run that “Trump is a Nazi” flag up the pole and watch me dance to it. But I don’t. And I won’t. So it tempers her arguments. She seethes when I say “Well, let’s give him a chance before we take to our sick bed”. She hates it when I say “You better unplug the microwave before you say that”.
People in the 20’s love to rile people up. If you deny them, they eventually give up.