Howdy,
I grew up in west Texas, where we have a number of rivalries which are based on nothing more than trivial events. This is evident in our love of rivalries for football, academics, and pickup trucks.
Through High School I learned of the great rivalries between those who owned "Ford Trucks", and those who owned "Chevy Trucks". It was (and still is) a hatred which bypassed all other viewpoints. Great anger was spewed forth from both directions at intersections, four-way stops, and in casual passing. People, in either vechicle, had degrading bumperstickers, attacking the other side with little or no basis.
The whole situation tore families and friends apart (slight exaggeration).
So, when I got my first "new" vehicle, I got a Dodge truck. I was hoping to bypass the judgement. Just to find that now both sides hated me for my indifference/"middle way" (I got all kinds of critism from both "Chevy and Ford people").
Nowadays, I see the same kind of bigotry in politics. There are those who take sides with a particular wing, just for the sake of being on a side.

*This is not meant to take away from anyone who has an informed opinion, just those who buy into the crazy propaganda out there, without question and still attempt to defend it.

Whether someone buys a Ford or Dodge or Chevy neither increases my taxes nor sends my son to war. I'll leave the assessment of the relevance of your analogy up to you.

We have a similar rivalry here in California with the Hybrids.

Just the other day I saw a Honda Hybrid Civic get run off the road by a Toyota Prius with an 8-foot Confederate flag fluttering behind it.

I stopped to help the Honda driver, she was gravely injured, barely conscious, and coughing up a lot of blood.
So, I asked her why she bought a Honda.
Was it for the great mileage?
The reliability?
The J.D. Powers Customer Satisfaction rating?

As she died in my arms her last words were, "My moms and their moms' domestic partners always drove Hondas."

You should have bought an SUV. Talk about strong feelings! At least you wouldn't be hated for your indifference.

Maybe it would be appropriate to have a tailgating party for Pianoworld 2004. We gotta truck - a Ford, but I could bring the minivan so no one would get their feathers ruffled.

Actually, in that part of the country SUV's are quite common and not an "issue". I guess this is because of the typically wide lanes, excess parking space width, and wide open plains.
To illustrate this, many people from around that region who move to larger cities develop an "elevator adversion". For example, once an elevator reaches a given number of occupants (even if it could still reasonable hold a half dozen or so more) they will decline the ride and opt to wait for the next ride.

I actually owned an '89 Isuzu Trooper (very boxy looking SUV, we used to call it the "moon rover") prior to my truck. Although, I loved having the spaciousness and high occupancy capacity, the four banger engine and constant maintenance problems combined with the need to "haul stuff around" forced me to look into a truck.