DU has always had divisions and it always will

[CakeGrrl]

16. But your very premise is skewed

in your fourth paragraph by claiming that the people who are generally more supportive of the President are the cause of tension because they get their "backs up" about criticism of the President.

I disagree. What contributes to the tension is increasing use of terms meant to insult the members of this community themselves, and it can be found in abundance:

Apologists
Cheerleaders
Obamabots and the lame variants
Blind followers (who need to protect their illusion of the President)
...and so on

You can almost pick a GD thread at random these days and find those terms being used freely.

And the response? The smug "If it walks like a duck..."

Some threads are created just so people can indulge in a group bash session.

So it's dishonest to imply that if the President's supporters could only be less defensive, it'd be all good. You only give cover to a lot of negative, inflammatory behavior by doing so.