Without a known enemy, America is at war with itself

Ever since the end of the cold war, America seemed lost its ultimate enemy, and thus its ultimate unitor. There may have been small "evil", like Saddam Hussein, or North Korea, Iran, maybe the combination of them called the "axis of evil". Then there's this unvisible "terror" like al qaeda, pervasive and faceless. At last, there's some potential "big evil" like China. But none posed the threat like the Nazi Germany or the Stalinist Soviet. Even if the "war on terror" for a very short period of time pull americans together. The united front fell apart quickly.

Now, Americans are at war with each other. The monsters and the devils, they discovered, are among themselves. They are radicals, communists, illegal aliens, gun-hangers, baby-killers, wealth distributors, muslim, bankers, and the list go on and on. In the name of democracy, they fight an unending war with each other. Their news became part of a propaganda machine, aiming and destroying the other side. It makes me think: what's good if no consensus and progress can be made? What's real about the motto "government of the people, by thepeople, for the people", if the people are so divided by fixed ideology while suffering common disease?

The effect of losing an real enemy and the failure of creating an replica have led to a total collapse of the domestic consensus building mechanism. So it seems that democracy works well with imperialism and global struggle, not that well with pax americana.