Bingo. The same is true of most single-issue voter issues. The real world is larger than any single issue, and most people are forced to live in that real world.
"For all the talk on immigration on FR, I don't hear much of it at the water cooler."
Funny, I hear people outraged about it everywhere, especially since the "demonstrations". It was the topic of conversation just this morning among a group of construction workers having breakfast near me.
Someone else mentioned the PC Police, but seriously, I noticed that when things got totally polarized as they did over the 2000 campaign, and again in 2004, people just stopped talking publically about their views.
I would date a change back to that 2000 election. Since then, the Dems have really taken the stance that Bush was illegally elected, and never gotten over it. Every issue seems to quickly become so polarized that no casual conversation is safe. I remember walking around work totally shaken by the fact that statistically, half the people I was dealing with were morally-bankrupt, brain-dead Dems that could only relate to issues emotionally.
Fortunately, there were a few of us that knew where each other stood, and we emailed stuff back and forth, or talked quietly in my office, which had some privacy.
But publically, it was risky to post conservative, or even just Bush/Cheney stickers on your bumper, because someone might "key" your car, or egg it, while it was in the parking lots out in the community.