I'm not American...so it's seems rather strange from an outsider's point of view.?

Yes American politics is like a food fight in elementary school. Very little substance, lots of useless rhetoric. Finding the middle road is not easy. Once you acquaint yourself with American politics and figure out which side you're on, you soon realize the middle road is a wasted effort, as the other side will take advantage of your attempted compromise and walk all over it.

That's what's been happening for the past 7 years. Obama (Democrat) attempted to compromise with Republicans many times. Republicans, angry they didn't win, threw it back in his face and literally, not even an exaggeration, said they would never compromise with him. Their only goal since then has been to be obstructionist, non-cooperative, non-bi-partisan warriors of the right wing.

That's how things have BECOME.

Republican icon Ronald Reagan wouldn't even be far enough to the right to get the party''s nomination anymore. Imagine, Reagan not being evil enough for today's Republicans. I mean, the dude was a racist, a black-basher, did illegal deals with terrorists...gutted taxes for the super-rich, kicked mental patients out onto the street. The Republican party has shifted so far right that there is not much gray area anymore. There used to be centrists in the Republican party, but they seem to have disappeared. They seem to be all extremists now.

A Republican created the EPA. Today, Republicans want to end the EPA.

You're not American, and in your allegedly enlightened outsider's point of view, you've come to the conclusion that there is no middle ground.

Check your preconceptions at the door, and remember to pick them up again on your way out.

Sixty percent of Americans can't even be bothered to vote, showing just how middle ground they are, I suppose.

What you see in the media is not necessarily the most accurate representation (and when I say the media, I mean the American media, not just that of your own country). While there does seem to have an increase in how polarized our politics are, there are still a lot of us who are somewhere in the middle. We just don't shout as loud and we aren't as interesting, so we don't get the attention.

It's not that simple. No two people agree on all issues, and there are varying degrees to being a Liberal or a Conservative. Some who identify as a Liberal may have liberal, progressive, authoritarian, or conservative stances on some issues, and the same can be said of Conservatives. Some Liberals aren't very liberal, and some Conservatives aren't very conservative, some may have very liberal stances on matters not concerning the government.

America is confusing. We deliberately chose freedom by limiting the power of GOVERNMENT. Even those Americans, on the inside, do not understand this concept...In America we call these 'people' Democrats or RINOs. From an outsider's point of view, I suppose you would call such 'people,' the SUPERVISOR class. The supervisor 'decides' how to limit the freedom of people, but not the power of government.

There IS a middle road, however the middle road NEVER wins in any capacity that has the ability to influence according to their agenda. Therefore the middle road has no purpose nor influence.

That's why people side with 1 of the 2 major political parties.

No one. Y!A Politics is full of trolls. Don't believe anything you read here.

The American propaganda machine teaches us we must support one of the two major parties that continue to amass more and more debt and keep us in perpetual war but the American propaganda machine is the most powerful in the world and controls ALL of our media (CNN, FOX, MSNBC, and all the other news channels as well as sitcoms and reality t.v.) so nearly everyone ends up being caught up in it.

Well, most things political are that simple. Some examples:

You either support free speech or you do not.

You either want to raise my taxes or you do not.

You either support government domestic spying or you do not.