They do have principles, however oddly flexible they may be.

My family and the gf's are probably 90% conservative. They know I'm not, and to an extent they treat me differently. But I don't think they'd wish anything bad on me as they might a stranger.

You see this in the face eating leopard articles where they're always like "I never wanted them deported, they're one of the good ones.". Once they get to know someone, they see they're really not so different at the core and that they're good honest people like they see themselves.

I really think it's just some bad wiring in the empathy part of the brain. Most of these people still have a chance to learn better views on the issues. Some may truly be hateful misanthropes, but I feel that is a very small minority.

It's easy to hate conservatives right now, and I won't say anyone is wrong to be angry. The only non-violent way we preserve rights though is by getting people to understand strangers and develop that empathy.

Most of us probably know a number of hard to love people right now, but it's taken time to make them ignorant and hateful, so we can give up on them or we can put time into undoing what has been done to them. I can't tell anyone what is right for them, but it's something we all need to bear in mind.