Politicians definitely take that to an extreme, both current major candidates are shining examples of it.

It's so crazy. Trump is far more left leaning than he has been acting and Hillary is more conservative than she lets on. Just look at either of their's history. Both these candidates are very moderate but because they are tied to the parties they pander to those voters.

Some of my best political discussions growing up were with my very liberal friend and teacher who was heavily involved with the local Democratic party. Because they brought knowledge to the table and we could just talk about why we disagreed and would at least give a compelling argument for the alternative.

This is exactly one of the reasons why people don't like to talk about politics. Most don't know what their talking about and no one likes to lose an argument. If we didn't look at it like winning/losing and look at things from the other side's point of view and learn about it then people might be able to discuss politics more. I don't agree with most conservative ideals but I'm not going to act like a child when someone tries to have a rational discussion with me. He's not representative of all Trump supporters but I'm reminded of this guy. No discussion, just repeating the childish way Trump speaks: "Lyin' Ted!" You can't have a discussion with a guy like this. You can't have a discussion with a Hillary supporter that refuses to talk about her policies and just says they're with her because it's time for a woman president. Whatever you may think of Bernie Supporters, one thing, in my experience, is most of the time you can talk about policies and substance with them.