Polarization

Liberal - Conservative
Democrat - Republican
Left Wing- Right Wing
Blue - Red (back in the day it was the other way around)

Why?  Why is the dichotomy required?  This nation was built on compromise.  The constitutional convention was a study in the ways compromise in politics gets done what looks impossible.  Yet today people seem unwilling to work together.  And the average American is sick of it.  Who are the popular Republicans these days?  Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Mitt Romney. John McCain Who are the popular Democrats? Barack Obama. Hillary Clinton.  Joe Lieberman looks like he will win flanked by the left and the right.  Colin Powell could probably win any election he wanted in a walk.  America really does have a silent majority.  Generally it consists of people who believe in a "live and let live" philosophy.  They are not people who are so shrill and strident that they refuse, like the left and the right, to listen or work with the other side.  Is it a mistake that Schwarzenegger is winning by double digits in a state that has two democratic senators? No.  Is it coincidence that Obama is being touted as the democratic hopefull?  A man notorious for working with others is what the American people crave.  People I know from both sides of the aisle are tired of the shrill tone and the strident views of both parties.  They say enough already.  Enough with the theories and the moralism.  Enough of negative campaigns and judgemental politics.  Maybe it would be nice just to get some things done.