[Lizzie]

Cutting people out of your life, particularly important people, should only be done if the person is threatening your well being in my opinion. If we cut people out of our life that we just don't agree with on political and social issues, then we would have a very limited group of people in our lives. Which is not healthy to our personal development. Learning from those who are different from us, help us understand the world we live in better. It helps us understand how to interact and work with those who see things differently from us. If you say "no, I don't agree with you, I am not going to talk to you" how does that help you in the long run? How does that help them in the long run? You will soon start to believe that people can't change, that people can't learn. And you will teach the other person, that the political side they don't believe in, has no real stance, no merit. In the end, it makes things worse. Sticking around and showing that person that your beliefs will make a difference, may change their mind. It may not, but you will never know unless you try.

It is important to surround yourself with those who have different thoughts from you. Its important to try to understand people who have different thoughts from you. Isolating yourself will ensure that you won't make progress in this area. You say you work in a social services field. A field where you will constantly be meeting people from many different cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. You can't just walk away from them when you don't agree with them. You figure out a way to make it work. Just like you will with your mother. Like suggested above, this may mean that you just make a truce not to talk about politics. Or it may take an adjustment in your own mind about why your mother believes the things she does. She grew up in a different manner, in a different way of life, during a different time period. It may take her longer to understand your point of view. She may have never even thought about different political beliefs until now. Human growth continues until we die. We learn new things, we see the world differently. Don't give up on her just yet. Have some faith that your presence in her life will change her for the better, but be aware this may take longer to achieve than you would like.