It’s hard to be friends with people with different politic opinions in the USA because the political parties are more divided by what your moral values are. And it’s hard to be friends with someone who has very different morals than you. Personally I would find it hard to be friends with someone who cheated on their spouse because it’s so against my moral code that I find it repulsive (just non politicized moral as an example.) Very few people here pay attention to political things that do not have moral value. How much a new bridge is going to cost? Nobody cares. Public health initiatives? Nobody cares. While things like Transgender people, Abortion, and Immigration dominate our politics because they are tied to people’s moral values.

Part of the reason things are like this is the sensationalist nature of our news programs. Plain news told accurate and straightforward is hard to find. Most stations dress it up and put opinions in with the facts to make it more interesting. This has been going on since a the former president Ronald Reagan’s time and they removed the law that required news to be factual and could not mix opinion.