How to abuse power and influence people

At a branch Welcome Party (for me and one other guy), one of my coworkers was self-outed as a former Young Republican, a current Republican, and a Bush supporter. Thereafter an argument ensued with a well-read colleague who proved to be full of anti-Bush arguments.

And wouldn't you know it? The pro-Busher is a young gal who hails from San Francisco and went to the University of Berkeley (still one of the most liberal places in America), while the anti-Busher is an even younger guy who is a devout, church-going (not so convenient in this country) Christian from Utah.

Bizarro World American politics.

This is the first Republican that I've met (and know of) in Japan. She is also (in a sense) my subordinate at work. Which puts me in a bit of a bind.

In general I think that there needs to be more civil discourse. Lame pun intended: I mean "civil" in the sense of "civilized" as well as "political". In Democracy In America, Tocqueville apparently marvelled at the way that two men from entirely different social circles could meet on the side of the road and have a civilized political conversation, and we could use a lot more of that today.

(I say "apparently", because, as Melanie Griffith's character was told in Born Yesterday, guys like me love to drop Tocqueville's name, but I've never even touched the book.)

So I really, desperately want to have a political discussion with her. I want to understand why she supports Bush, because at the moment I'm having a lot of difficulty getting my mind around such a thing. And, God willing, I would like to convince her to change her mind.

The way I see it, I either run the risk of ruining our professional relationship, or let her ruinous political beliefs pass by without remark. Which is the greater evil?