It's not just about numbers. It's not just about programs. It's about a philosophy that is fundamentally opposed to the values and principles upon which our country was founded. Let's face it. We are not a polarized nation. We are a nation at war with itself.

Why was it so difficult to avoid the fiscal cliff? Especially when, in the end, Congress couldn't salvage a grand bargain à la Simpson-Bowles, but instead settled for a quick fix?

If we are ever to get back to a government that can have the faith of the American people, we need to limit the extremists in Congress. Today, only 50 of the 435 house seats are competitive districts according to former Senator Bill Bradley.

While demonizing whole states may feel good, it does little to illuminate the complex realities of American politics.

Barack Obama's supporters understandably feel uplifted by his reelection. Chants of "Four more years" have been matched by the hope that Obama will finally be able to complete his agenda during his second term. In reality, the public reelected Obama without giving him the clear means to do so.

We're coming to the end of a bitter election feeling as if we're two nations rather than one. The challenge -- not only for our president and representatives in Washington but for all of us -- is to rediscover the public good.

Politics in the U.S. are more deadlocked and polarized today than they have been since the end of the U.S. Civil War. Here's what our next president and our citizens can do about it.

Obama failed to change Washington. That will take not just a compromising president, but a compromising Congress. The project is larger than this two-man election. Still, Obama's reelection is crucial. You don't get less gridlock by voting for the party that is spearheading it.

To blame the president for our current state of affairs, as some have, is patently absurd. He has been the victim and target, not the initiator, of this politics of division.

Hurricane Sandy (like Katrina and 9/11 and other catastrophes) shows our politicians are CAPABLE of working together. They just won't. That is selfish.

We are capable of being positive and unified, even while we contest some of the great political issues of our day. We can be one people while we entertain very different opinions. And we can have one heart even when we have different minds.

To repair its economy, the U.S. urgently needs finely-tuned macroeconomic policies and institutional changes. For this challenge, a rational voter would not rely on the Republican pseudoconservative political stance that, after helping to bring about the Great Recession, has foundered in self-contradiction.

The polarized politics of our time, joined with an appetite for pigeonholing, exert pressure on everyone to categorize themselves. Sometimes people declare themselves for "isms" that they have not plumbed. An example in point is conservatism. The politicians who now travel under the banner of "conservatism" happen to espouse views and methods that are incompatible with the philosophy bearing that name. Meanwhile members of the opposing political party have imbibed a dose of the wisdom conveyed by conservatism. This includes a cautious disposition to welcome expert reasoning about economic policy, reasoning of the sort desperately needed for recovery. When the details of this are made clear, so are voters' alternatives in the forthcoming election.

If you hate my opinion, fine. If I hate your opinion, fine. But for goodness sake, have your own opinion. And back it up. Otherwise, it's just flapping lips and air. And it hurts everything it touches, including America.

Lincoln's grace helped to heal a nation torn by civil war. Considering the decidedly uncivil nature of the war launched upon the nation by one guilty, odious party, such grace simply would not suffice.

In a culture of polarized politics, quick fixes, and success defined as making money, how might citizenship become an ethos across the aisle, not an exception?

The only polarization I see is a sad one. There is a small, but indeed passionate, minority whose only values are expressed negatively--Against! Against! Against! is their cry. On the other side? Indifference.

Politics in the US are more deadlocked and polarized today than they have been since the end of the US Civil War. We see this in voting patterns in the US Congress as well as in citizen voting patterns across the country.

The polls have maintained a serene stability. What about all those dramatic twists and turns so breathlessly covered by cable news? The showdown over contraception. The "Etch-a-Sketch" moment. The impact? Nothing changed.

I don't get it, but the alliance between the energies of the new right and the money of big corporations and Wall Street is formidable, and in this early summer of our discontent Washington can already sense the barbarians at the gates.