Meeting in the middle

Recently I started talking to my cousins on Facebook. We haven't talked in years, and so it's been really cool catching up and rediscovering each other as adults and parents.
One of my cousins and I have found quite a bit in common, we're both mothers of children with medical problems and food allergies, we're both into organics, we're both into Christmas music in the fall (shut up, there's nothing wrong with that).
She's also a member of the Fox Nation, believes that the healthcare reform will pay for abortions and start death panels, that vaccines cause autism, etc.
I am not.
If she knew that I was a liberal pagan there is a good chance she may not talk to me again. The fact that I'm a single mom gets a pass only because I was married once. We found a middle ground, and get along pretty well,yet there it is. That strain of always trying to not say the wrong thing because that could be it. No more friendship or sharing or mom talk.
It makes me sad that our being friends on Facebook depends on me never mentioning anything I actually think about anything important. Never disagreeing, never providing an opposing view. If I did I would be teh evil and that would be it.
If this sounds familiar, it should. It happens every day, where conservative talking heads vilify people for not agreeing with them, where friendships are broken over ideologies, where families stop talking because of how someone voted. There is no middle ground anymore. And the middle ground we get to is one person refusing to talk to the other simply to save the friendship/family/news show.
If we can't find an actual middle ground where views can be presented without immediate reactionary screaming and finger pointing :cough:beck:cough: then we may find a terrible split in the country of the wingnuts from the rest of us. Who knows, it may be for the best if that all wander up to Alaska or something and form their own country, but I would rather see us actually try to work things out first.
I'd really hate to lose a family member to Alaska because of this.