The demonization of opposition seems to have grown in recent years. There was a time when political opposition was recognized as a difference of opinion, even a heated difference. But at the end of the day the parties (both political parties and individual participants to a disagreement on a single issue) respected one another as decent, if misguided, persons of good intent.
Now it seems more and more that there is a presumption that a political opponent’s opposition means that political opponent is a bad person. Ill motives are easily implied and assuming the worst of others seem de rigueur. This attitude makes it harder to reach across the aisle and deal in a bipartisan manner on other issues.