I have tried so hard to be patient with the Sanders supporters but I can't do it anymore.

I used to like sanders...but past 3 or 4 weeks...I can't wait until he is back in vermont....

... but the real-life BS supporters who I happen to know, well, they're actually perfectly reasonable people. They like his ideas and his rhetoric, but they're also mature enough to know that Hillary will be the nominee and they'll be voting for her.

But two of them, very good friends of mine, in fact two of my closest friends in the world, totally bought into the Vatican bullshit. "The Vatican invited Bernie!" If they can be fooled (and I tried really hard not to be drawn into the argument) and parrot back that crap, I wonder if anyone is digging beneath the surface.

really going overboard. They say it would be ok for Trump to win it would "teach the party a lesson" and "people like me" who don't get it.

... I was often tempted to just write-them-off and have nothing to do with folks like that. But, aside from their wacko beliefs, they were otherwise nice and interesting people that I had things in common with... so I figured there must be some other solution.

But, my solution required both people to agree to it ... basically, at my request, we both agreed to avoid discussing politics (or religion) forever. We'd remain friends, but we'd just have to accept that we'd never see eye to eye on these subjects.

For the most part it's worked. There are a couple of people who couldn't accept the terms, but at least I gave them a chance to salvage our relationship and to enjoy each others company outside of politics and religion. For those individuals, I'm not ignoring them... they're not "dead-to-me" or anything dire like that ... but I do choose to limit my contact with them.

Some people just can't let go and they absolutely MUST argue until the whole world believes as they do. And that's where the OP hit the nail on the head with the "cult like" comparison. It's an obsessive behavior that excludes all other viewpoints and doesn't even allow for respectful disagreement. I don't have time for that.

I'm smart enough to know that I'll never change their minds, so I don't even try. They, on the other hand, should be able to understand that they are not going to change my mind either ... YET THEY INSIST ON TRYING at every possible opportunity. (UGH!)