Well yes. Political parties have little to do with anything. Donald Trump has been both a Democrat and a republican without really changing his position on much of anything in the process. How a person feels or votes on guns or welfare or taxes or LGBTQ+ issues or anything else can be all over the board. So there’s no reason not to be friends with a person because they are a different party. There’s good reason not to be friends with them though if they don’t share certain values. I wouldn’t be friends with a child rapist, I wouldn’t be friends with a member of a hate group or who held such strong bigotry. There are plenty of ideals that can make or break a friendship- political parties don’t mean anything.
So- without getting into political debate over the man’s policies or the effect they have had etc... There’s a slippery slope. We can be friends and disagree- even in fundamental issues. There’s some odd balance where a persons faults are outweighed by their virtues and the things we share. Ideally we should aspire to find those common points between people and at least be civil. Of course- it is possible to have friends who you perceive as being morally or intellectually or otherwise lacking in regards.
It’s complicated. If Abe Lincoln or Donald Trump or your best friend had been convicted of child molestation and served their time- how would that effect your feelings on them? Would you still be friends? If you stayed friends would it be fair for someone to refuse to be your friend because you are their friend? If you worked with Hitler and he told amazing jokes at the water cooler how should you be judged if you laugh or banter from time to time?
At some point though we have to draw a line. At some point we just don’t want to be associated with certain things or certain people. At some point we cannot he friends with someone who is not only ideologically opposed to us- but is bent on our destruction. There is a BIG difference between “getting along with” and “being friends.”
You could get along with your worst enemy of you had to- and then might kill them or escape them the first chance you got.
You could get along with your worst enemy of you had to- and then might kill them or escape them the first chance you got.