Sean Hannity characterizes the American Liberal as:
one who is overly reluctant to use military force
one who is overly reluctant to confront an adversary
one who is overly sensitive to religion in government and the public schools
one who is apologetic and insensitive to the trappings and lore of Americana
Overly sensitive? Yes.
That American liberal does battle against the Amercan conservative
one who is too quick to use military force, and spends far too much American capital for weapons
one who faces opponents belligerently
one who wants religion and god in public schools and public places and who hates the atheist
one who takes American trappings and lore as the absolute truth.
Much of these battles take place over the hearts and minds of children. Much of them take place between people of greatly differing experiences, as the country is very large and has changed so very much that people who have and know the worst and echoes of the very worst co-exist with the best and promises of utopia at any cost. One extreme would let the country be an arena of Darwinian conflicts, the other extreme would make the country into a soft sided playpen where no one gets hurt or suffers from anything at all.
Each side is very sensitive to the notion that government might swing completely to one side or the other, and therefore vilify each other.
So, we fight over the pledge, the flag, and god words. Each side takes a side and will not report or accept measures taken by the other side: the gently middle, is excluded.
There is ample justification to fear each side: one side is facism, the other is communism and those are the rocks we steer this ship between. Each side sees the rocks as perilously close to the ship of state. Leadership is needed to assuage those fears, to acknowledge the extreme positions, and note that they have always existed and always will, but what is America is quite safely in the middle.