Politically, my mother is a fairly liberal person, the kind that (probably) voted for Obama, and my father is a much more conservative, Rush Limbaugh-listening Republican type. This can lead to interesting conversations that start to bubble up during the holidays, but the more important implication is that it's impossible for anyone talking to me to make broad, incendiary statements about Republicans or Democrats without indirectly insulting one of my parents.

This usually doesn't bother me when it happens...but most other people have family or friends of varying political persuasions, and it could almost certainly bother any one of them. It's clear that a lot of people don't keep this sort of thing in mind when they start talking politics in social situations.

You have to be careful what you say, and how you say it, because you never really know exactly who you're talking to. (P.S. That advice doesn't just apply to politics.)