Aren't we all Americans?

I’m trying to figure out if this is something had occurred gradually without my notice, or if there was a significant event that escaped my attention….or possibly, this is a phenomenon that has existed throughout the history of American politics, and I’m only now sufficiently jaded and cynical to accept that it exists?

When did we stop being Americans who could disagree politically and become militant enemies?

When did advocating for a more Conservative or more Liberal policy morph into one being labeled anti-American? Our political landscape has consisted of methodical push and pull between the two major parties for at least the last century, and both ideologies have contributed to the growth and strength of our nation.

It simply appears to me that the current and the last few campaign cycles has witnessed a growing effort to attempt to rewrite what the Founding Fathers meant, to decry the opposition as un-American, or some sort of ‘other’……or to portray the equally mainstream opposition party as a fringe, extremist movement, even when obvious cross-party comparisons are painfully evident.

If you have to use hysterical rhetoric, bombastic hyperbole, or just outright invent defamatory tautology…………..what does that really say for the validity of your ideological position in the first place?