What troubles a northern Californian? Making a horrible mistake like inviting a conservative to dinner. This comes from today’s New York Times Fashion/Style section:

recently, after I invited over a mix of old and new friends, I started to worry that I’d made a careless mistake that could lead to a disaster: a dinner party culture war.
“Who’s coming?” my husband asked a few days before the event.
“Ted and Amy, Mary Lou and John, Peggy and Richard,” I said, ticking off the guest list.
“To the same party?” he asked. “Do we still have any of that 151 rum left?”
It was then I realized I had broken one of the unspoken rules of etiquette prevailing in my corner of Northern California: I’d invited conservatives and liberals to dine together.
It’s a recipe for disaster. The cultural divide has been growing for four decades. But back in 1969, when the term “positive polarization” was coined to describe a way to split Americans into different camps based on what they thought about social issues, no one probably realized that one side effect of the plan would be a nation ruined by dinner-party discord.
These days people are as apt to define themselves by their political beliefs as earlier generations were to classify themselves by religion, economic class or ethnicity. Even with a new president in office who preaches bipartisan cooperation, the country remains locked in a stubborn us-against-them, red-versus-blue debate that colors so many aspects of life.
I’ve been skittish about mixing guests’ politics ever since the time, a year or so ago, when a Democrat and a Republican started “discussing” the Middle East during the casserole course. Well before dessert, their voices escalated into a decibel range more commonly heard on the “Meet the Press” set than at a suburban dinner party. They both went home well before decaf.
“That was nothing compared to what could happen with this crowd,” my husband warned.
He was right. This time I’d somehow managed to invite known Republicans, including a vociferous Sarah Palin supporter, to mingle with liberals who live in notoriously left-leaning Berkeley.

BTW: To spare you the read: Everyone survived. And there were hugs.