I was talking to an academic economist from a name brand university on a DC to NYC bus a couple weeks ago. After mentioning that I'd been campaign volunteering, he cautiously asked for who, and literally breathed a sigh of relief when I said Obama. I noted that econ departments are one of the few academic areas where you can find Republicans. He agreed, and said that the problem with the past seven years is that it has made social interaction more difficult. Before Bush his view was that you could be both a decent person and intelligent while being a Republican, just wrong. Now it's either one or the other. Still, in the interest of conflict avoidance he tries to avoid political topics with them and stay polite when it comes up. His wife takes a different approach which has apparently caused some interesting moments at parties.