It may not be the worst impact of the Obama administration, but it may turn out to be the longest lasting. Politics has always been a divisive game. Along with religion it is one of the subjects we are always cautioned not to discuss at dinner parties. At its worst, however, it was never as it is today.

We all remember Obama saying we are not a Blue America; we are not a Red America; we are the United States of America. His administration, however, has proven itself to be anything but.

For the first two years of his administration, he basically thumbed his nose at Republicans, not allowing them to have any input in any major legislation. Together with his supermajorities in the House and Senate, he acted as if this nation only had one party. When he no longer had those supermajorities, he didn't choose to compromise to get things done, as Clinton had done; he simply blamed Republicans for not "compromising" which, of course, he defined as not agreeing with exactly what he wanted to do.

Even his first campaign was the most divisive in history. Clinton himself announced that Obama had "played the race card" on him. Indeed he had. Shame on Clinton for supporting such an individual now. If you disagreed with Obama, if you believed that someone with only one year in the U.S. Senate, no years in Congress, no business experience, no federal government experience other than that one year in the Senate, no proven record, no executive experience in any capacity, a history of close relationships with those who despise America and its way of life, it was, announced the Obama campaign and its principal supporters like Maxine Waters, simply because you didn't want a Black man in the White House.

Today, when we should be able to discuss his record, when we should be able to have an intelligent debate on his failures and even those few accomplishments he can claim, we cannot have that debate. Many of us have had the experience of attempting to have an intelligent conversation with Obama supporters only to find that reasonably intelligent, articulate people, even those skilled in debate and discussion, refuse to discuss Obama in an intelligent manner. Instead, they resort to playing the race card, arguing that they have their view and if one disagrees with it, it is an insult to them, and, in the ultimate irony for those so anxious to accuse others of racism, attacking Romney on the basis of his Mormon religion. Apparently, to the left, whether intolerance is acceptable depends on who's intolerant.

Democracy, even a republican form of democracy such as ours, flourishes only when ideas can be debated and compromises reached. If opposing forces cannot discuss the issues with each other intelligently, we can never reach the best of opposing views. That has always been the strength of America. That has always been the underpinning of American progress. Exemplified by the discussions, often heated, between Johnson and Dirksen, it is essential that this remain a part of our political fabric.

From David Axelrod's threatening of Gallup with unrelated labor litigation if they didn't change their "methodology" showing adverse results for Obama, to one Democratic Party operative after another claiming everyone is a racist, to abrasive and strident voices such as Pelosi and Wasserman-Schultz, the current administration is working hard to eliminate this essential element of our national political system. In the end, with all of the horrors of the Obama financial policies, the lack of leadership in foreign affairs, the dangerous ignoring of Arab and Moslem hegemony, the errors of an unworkable and fiscally irresponsible health care system, the greatest danger to America may be this administration's encouragement of the elimination of positive debate.  Regardless of whether one believes Obama's policies are workable, this imminent threat to the national dialogue needs to be addressed. It can only be hoped that we will do so in November.