Then, there's the FUD machine going. I can't really explain this. I'm sure that it's always been in American politics. (There's little new in this world.) It's now a bit easier to hear the FUD from the Democratic side. I now find that "The Democrats are all communists" is as insulting as "The Republicans are hurting the poor." Both, to me, are FUD. I have little tolerance for this rhetoric.
I understand more about State's Rights, and limited Federal government. I had to read many posts to get a clue about WHAT they were talking about, because these things have all devolved into jingles and jigos. Behind this is really a very fascinating issue of federal vs state vs local responsibility.
As I see politics right now, the Repulican challenge is to actually implement what they said that they would do. (Smaller government, balanced budget, responsibility.) The Democratic challenge is to actually voice a clear vision of the federal government. The challenge of both sides is to wrestle with the budget, which effects everyone. At this point, I presume that all the easy stuff is out of the budget. If not, the easy stuff should go. That leaves us with the hard stuff, and the hard stuff is hard.