It is, and that's why I think it's valuable to take the effort to really try to understand each other's positions - partisan hatred will get us nowhere and at the end of the day, both sides have a lot of value to add to the political conversation.

Of the many conversations I've had with left-leaning people about this, you're the first that has not tried to shut me down with accusations of <something>ism and has listened to my perspective while still being critical - I think that's a valuable attitude to have, and if people took that approach more often we'd have a lot more real progress in politics.

The sad thing is, the left and right are both rooted in classical liberalism, which IMO is the "moral absolute" by which progress should be judged. Unfortunately each side ends up with a caricatured view of the other - the liberal is the subversive/violent socialist who doesn't understand economics or human motivation and just wants to shut down dissent, and the conservative is the closet bigot who wants to use political action to suppress civil rights in order to secure dominance of straight white males over other groups. Building up supporting structures of prejudice around these caricatures causes such a huge rift in society, and we all end up fighting each other instead of building an amalgamation that works to advance everyone's wellbeing.