Not that kind of snipe hunting...I'm talking about the sniping we're doing at each other.
If aliens, unable to interpret our language could nonetheless listen to our public discourse, what would they hear? Would they detect two distinct parties debating opposing opinions? I don't think so. I believe they would hear a single raging cacophony of bitter hatred, a shrill chorus of venomous spite with nothing to differentiate the two parties.
We're all the same - we're a nation of ignoble brutes with no greater desire than to beat to a bloody pulp the opposition. There is no diplomacy, no civility, no honor - only division and strife. How dare we call ourselves progressive! Did we learn nothing from the war between the north and south? Did my grandfather shed his blood for nothing?
Over my life I've observed time and again that the truth is generally somewhere between the two extremes. And yet, here we are, treading at the poles, more interested in ideological spoils than developing faith and trust in our fellow countrymen. Empty rhetoric and overused cliché is the weapon of the day.
I ask you, is this really a battle we want to win? Because if we win, we lose.