Today, having an intelligent conversation about the issues of the day with any so-and-so has become more fraught with mental and verbal landmines that take discussing an issue to a level of intelligence that is almost Neanderthal-ish. 
And having our discourse go down to a "me versus you" level on such banal topics makes the actual analysis of these issues to make intelligent decisions very unlikely. 
And that is where, ladies and gentlemen, the voter goes into a booth and makes some very bad decisions on things that affect all of us for a good long time.