The political landscape in the United States has become increasingly fractured. On both ends of the spectrum, rhetoric has grown sharper, louder and more absolute. What once passed as spirited debate often now feels like verbal combat. Instead of persuasion, the aim has become domination. Instead of building common ground, the goal has become destroying the credibility of the other side.

This kind of rhetoric perpetuates the very divide it laments. When people only hear caricatures of their opponents’ positions—delivered in angry, moralizing tones—they dig in deeper. It creates the illusion that every issue has only two camps, each irreconcilably opposed to the other. The result is a civic atmosphere in which the middle ground is not just ignored but actively scorned.

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