I have two questions I need answered
1. How can differences of political opinion turn friends into enemies?
2. Why is it important to understand people who think differently from you? In other words, why is it important to be "tolerant" of other people's political opinions?

1. How can differences of political opinion turn friends into enemies?

It'll happen quite easily actually. If two people (who happen to be friends) got into an argument on their opinions the fight can lead to them not being friends anymore. They might of respected their opinions more than each other which would eventually end in fight. (In my experience.)

2. Why is it important to understand people who think differently from you? In other words, why is it important to be "tolerant" of other people's political opinions?

Although it is hard to respect others political choices, you'll have to consider that they can trust what or who they want to. They also have their own rights.  

Explanation:

Hope it helps.

1. Through Biology and certain instincts we have built into us

2. Tolerance is important because, without it, we would be crumbling into chaos (as we already are, because people seem to not be tolerant)

1. We, as humans, think of ourselves as higher than others. We get fixated on our views and it gets harder to accept other ideas and views others have. Humans have a tendency to argue their point, even when they subconsciously know that they will get nowhere. I have, and I am sure you as well, have seen this happen many times and are kind of sick of it. I have, and so have many others, participated in these arguments of futility, and have probably at some point noticed (and accepted) that they couldn't convince the other.

For instance, if I support President John Doe, because of reason 1, I can tell my friend. However, If my friend supports President Jane Doe, because of reason 2, and reason 1 is invalid because of reason 3, then I have a problem on my hands. As I said before, we think of ourselves higher; According to experience, (and the human brain and studies), this will incite an argument, each person arguing their point in futility. Sometimes an argument is too big to get over, and people split.

2. Abraham Lincon said, "A house divided against itself cannot stand".

These immortal words have been proven not so immortal. As stated in explanation 1, people get into futile arguments quite often. Notice how I said futile. Note that.

Looking at the example in "1", we see that friends get torn apart and people get rifts shoved between them because of these arguments. That is the stick. Getting fixated on your views is so dangerous because you close your mind and become unlikable, which is one of the most underrated things by far.

By opening your mind to other people's points, you see that there is a whole mountain of points against and for everything. This is the Carrot. I too was once a close-minded person. I disregarded everything everyone said and replaced it with my own, if I may, President John Doe. Now that I opened my eyes, I can "see clearly now, the rain has gone" and I know that there is a whole world we never see because of our own prison of futility and lies.

Conclusion: Reading this, hopefully, you will see that it is much better to accept anothers' point and understand it than to ignore it.

That is the carrot, that is the stick, and we are the donkey.

answer: a type of slavery where the enslaved person is the sole property of the master

explanation: