As my old pappy used to say, "You never have to respond to anything that isn't followed by a question mark."
No one likes their politics attacked in a non-political social situation.
On the other hand, this year I went to Politicon, and was thrilled to witness peaceful real head on political debates. And people went out happily. Debate is good. This polarization and hatred of the Other is the problem, not the actual differences of thought. Political differences are only disagreements about how to organize governments. Surely we can love one another and disagree.