The distinction between personal and political is becoming blurred with the increasing politicization of society. 
Now, politics is based on unchanging ideological differences. There is no conversation. As soon as a person says they are a liberal or conservative, there is an automatic stigma attached to them. Every conversation must be handled as precariously as a loaded gun waiting to go off.
Politics consumes our lives and fills our value systems and belief structures. There are extreme partisan divisions regarding the social safety net, the environment, labor unions and equal opportunity. As the political and personal become more intertwined, relationships and interactions become complicated. 
Tell a marine biologist you don’t think it’s important to fund agencies that protect her work saving the world’s most endangered species and see how it goes. Her entire personal life is oriented around environmental protection. It’s likely she spent hours on hours curating paperwork and jumping through bureaucratic hoops to obtain research funding. 
Naturally, when election season comes around, she likely would be hesitant to vote for a candidate who favored cutting funding to the organizations allotting research funding. It’s more likely she would support a candidate who promises environmental reform and calls for increased innovation. 
The same goes for many conservatives who vote very hard-line on issues like abortion based on their moral inclinations. Their personal values and belief systems drastically influence their decisions at the polls. I know because growing up I watched relatives in my own Catholic , Italianfamily vote based on strict moral values.
In this sense, the personal cannot be disentangled from the political.
But life is not black and white, but rather a moral, ethical and political gray area. Everything is complex, so one scenario is incapable of reflecting the entirety of the entanglement.
Consider this. 
Sister A, Amy, is a conservative, straight woman. She does not support gay marriage. Sister B, Betsy , is a liberal, gay woman. She will be marrying her partner and has invited Amy to attend her wedding. Despite Amy’s lack of political support for gay marriage, she agrees to attend her gay sister’s wedding. She admits, however, she may feel resentment regarding the marriage based on her personal values. 
Amy’s  choice to attend the wedding reflects the complications in our personal lives which influence our political decisions.  I’m not sure if it’s possible to disentangle the various aspects of our personal and political lives. Maybe the solution is to simply try to hear the other side out, to at least make an effort to try to understand. Because if the polarization of people and belief structures continues trending as it is now, productive interaction is likely to become nearly impossible.
Alaina DiLaura is a 20-year-old international studies and mass communication sophomore from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.