Political rhetoric has heated up over the past decade. We’ve seen outrageous and demeaning hyperbolic comments being thrown around with each passing day — whether it’s U.S. Rep. Al Green’s loud protestations during President Donald Trump’s recent address to a joint session of Congress or President Trump’s description of Green as a “low IQ individual” as well as a “fool” and a “clown.”

Add to this month’s running total recent comments by U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a Texas Democrat, who described Trump as “occupying the White House” and as an “enemy to the United States” on the heels of the president’s admittedly testy exchange in the Oval Office with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Whatever one may think of Trump’s actions (and, yes, his own over-the-top slurs), there ought to be at least some sliver of acknowledgement that this particular “enemy of the state” is advocating to protect his fellow Americans tough-on-crime policies while seeking to combat terrorism and the fentanyl crisis. If you think he’s going about it the wrong way, that’s fair, but an enemy of the state? That’s beyond the pale.

President Trump holds quite a number of policy positions that anger Democrats. Those include his anti-LGBTQ+ executive order to his immigration crackdown and more. But is it truly fair for a members of the U.S. House of Representatives, somebody who is looked upon as a role model by many across the United States, to call President Trump an enemy of the United States?

We can all have our disagreements about what policy is right and wrong. Our country is more polarized than ever with respect to that. Yet the accusations and hyperbole that both Democrats and Republicans have leveled against one another is disproportionate and counter-productive. One doesn’t persuade with insults.

And this is exactly why our nation is so polarized. It’s not because we have such strong disagreements with one another. It’s because we don’t — and probably don’t want to — understand one another. Democrats do not support allowing transgender athletes to join in organized sports with the intention of eroding women’s rights, an issue that the party has championed vehemently for decades.

Most Republicans who fear allowing transgender women to participate in women’s sports probably aren’t doing so because they want to eradicate LGBTQ+ individuals, but because they believe it unfair to women who weren’t assigned male at birth. And that’s likely regardless of whether transgender athletes are taking hormone blockers or underwent a sex change. It’s just a difficult circumstance to reconcile.

To his credit, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore has generally taken a different approach, refusing to demonize his adversaries and instead working with them. That’s why Maryland has accomplished so much with respect to crime, juvenile justice and more. That is the type of political action that people can rally around. Even in his recent criticisms of the Trump administration, Moore was careful not to attack people but policy referring to the dramatic cuts to the federal workforce as “draconian” and “arbitrary,” while offering a willingness to find “common ground” with the White House, if possible.

We should all check ourselves every once in a while. When the heat starts to turn up, take a step back and cool down. Think about people’s perspectives rather than their policy. That’s what brings us together and allows us to make changes that benefit everybody, not only our parties.

We may tell ourselves that we’re only reacting to the disreputable behavior of our political adversaries — but that’s the kind of thinking that can only further escalate conflicts and makes compromise all the more elusive. The famous line, “They pull a knife, you pull a gun,” in the 1987 movie “The Untouchables” may recommend ruthlessness in crime fighting but it’s a lousy approach to governing a nation.

Baltimore Sun editorial writers offer opinions and analysis on news and issues relevant to readers. They operate separately from the newsroom.