Would you evaluate a friend more by their political orientation or by how they treat you personally?

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It's kind of a dilemma for me, I have a friend who I have known for 16 years who has been supportive and faithful through thick and thin. He recently helped and advised me after a burglary at my house (where I encountered the 3 burglars at 6:30 a.m in nothing but my underwear and had a taser pointed shown to me for a second). He has given me plenty of advice and never fails to keep in touch with me just to see how I am doing. The odd thing is that he is a very deep right-winger and has been all his life. He told me once that he was tearing down McGovern signs in his neighborhood at the age of 12. He owns 120 guns and hates gun laws and "fucking California liberals." I think he realizes I'm liberal but he just can't help himself sometimes. When he starts talking politics I just shut up completely until he realizes it's going nowhere and starts talking about something else. He also uses the n-word and the f-word once in a while. It's odd, because normally I would never allow a person with his beliefs to become such a close friend to me, but over the years it has become a valuable friendship, in spite of his beliefs and attitudes which are so different from mine. He has been loyal, caring, interesting and funny and non-judgemental towards me, even if he is harshly judgemental to segments of society which he has hatred for, some of which I am part of. Have you been in such a situation?