There are many subjects that are controversial to talk about with family.
I'm hispanic, so talking about religion with family members is an ongoing battle, since the country I'm from is 95% Roman Catholic. I have to constantly describe what 'being Agnostic' is. Usually after the first explanation they say "So you're an Atheist" and I'm like "noooo..." and then have to explain it again. Religion is so entwined into most of my relatives' lives, since they're Catholic (or in one case, Jehova's Witness {a religion I dislike because of their elitist attitudes and how they shun people who do not have perfect morals}).
Interestingly enough, although most are Catholic and believe in that religion, they also believe in supernatural things like the "Evil Eye" and curses. I guess it's the leftover roots from our indigenous ancestors.
When it comes to politics, the USA's "Left" is actually centrist. The entire spectrum for USA politics is askew; there is no left. There's center, right, and far right. You can tell because anytime someone adds the word "Social", or "Community" or "Unionized" to anything, people generally throw their hands up and scream 'socialist' and 'communist' and 'anti-capitalist' and 'anti-American'. That's how askew the thing is. Even if you're on the USA 'left', you don't mention things with those words out of fear that you'll be colored red. In South America, however, that's where there are more "Left" states of government
I'm for:
-Separation of Church and State... but not enough to raise a hissyfit over the dollar saying "In God We Trust".
-ProChoice. Most people who are against them are so because of their religion and its imposed Moral Compass.
-Gay Rights and Gay Marriage.
-Social programs (like Social Security, Medicare, Welfare, Unemployment) and paying taxes for them. The downtrodden in the society should have access to the basic necessities and even if I were rich, I'd still pay taxes for them... for the good of the community.
-Local Industry (there should be heavy tariffs for companies who outsource their work, and a heavy tariff on imported goods, in order to promose USA-marketed product)
-Green Energy (I see ads on CNN all the time paid for by the American Petroleum Industry, and I really think that we should be focusing our...er... 'energy'... on better sources of energy, even if there are wind farms on every hill and solar panels on every post).
So I guess I'm on the left, but these are just honest sensible approaches. I am in an odd situation because South Americans are very religious, but at the same time very liberal (I'm not religious at all and generally am against Organized Religion of any type). It's not like in the USA where the heavily religious are usually Republican as well. There seems to be some kind of rationale developed, either by media or by the political groups themselves, in the USA, which sort of throws all the Atheists and Agnostics into the supposed "Left" as if we were heathens, potheads, or hippies.