There is, however, a tendency to look at the other party as the enemy. 

I could not agree more.  The shrill extremes from the party whip the people into a fervor.  We sometimes forget that both Bush and Obama love our country.  We forget that Liberals do want to protect our country and we forget that Conservatives do care about the poor. 

We forget that many of our good friends and perhaps family probably belong to the other party.  We forget that we have far more in common that we have to fight about.

But we cannot be too simplistic!  The acrimony is hard to avoid because our differences are often related directly to life and family and we get very protective of life and family -- Many Conservatives think abortion is murder -- any compromise is unthinkable for them because they cannot condone murder.  Many Liberals think a family with two gay parents is still a family -- any compromise is unthinkable because they cannot deprive somebody of a basic human right and they cannot be aparty to tearing families apart for political compromise...