I think there's been too much picking on LW#1.

First of all, what she's doing is pretty natural when you think about it. Who, as a teenager, hasn't experimented with philosophical beliefs that are different from their parents? Or, at the very least, try out a different political angle just to cheese them off?

I mean, kids with really conservative parents end up piercing their noses or dressing like goths to freak their parents out. It stands to reason that someone with really liberal parents will have to try a different approach.

And, in the end, does it really matter what political party a couple of teenagers belong to? It's not as if they're old enough to vote.

That being said, the main thing I would tell LW#1 is that there's a reason Miss Manners says that politics should never be brought up in polite company. Throughout your life, there will be times when you'll have to keep your political opinions to yourself for the sake of preserving social harmony.

My parents had been staunchly conservative Republicans for some time. When I was a teenager I latched onto a lot of more liberal ideas, sometimes sincerely and sometimes just to get a rise out of them. Now that I'm older I'm still much more liberal than they are, but I also don't get to see them much and I want the interaction I do get to be friendly. So I make it a point never to bring up politics around them. Sometimes that entails smiling and nodding when listening to something that I don't agree with, but sometimes that's what you have to do.