The first time was the Revolutionary War period. The purity test then was "Independence". After the shooting started anyone who called for compromise with the British was considered an enemy. Their property was confiscated, they were sometimes tar and feathered, and in some cases killed as loyalists.
The other was the Civil War period.....then the purity test was "Union". Each side punished with death anyone who disagreed with that litmus test.
I don't know what the word will be this time.....but one is coming. There can never be a peaceful compromise between men who believe in constitutional limitations on federal power and those who believe the constitution is a living document and can be interpreted according to modern standards. A final clash is enevitable. You see the hardening of positions everyday. Neither side wants to compromise because each side belives the other side is wrong AND EVIL
Just like during the Revolution and the Civil War, everybody will have to chose a side.
You do make an interesting point here. I presume you are asserting we are entering something of a pre-revolutionary period. I agree, this is possible, but I am not by any means sold on it. As of now, most of the zeal for change is really only on the right. Yes, much of the public is angry or disappointed, but there just isn't any real evidence they have turned against the social welfare state. Far too many conservatives spend a bit too much time in the "echo chamber" and overestimate the power of the energized right/Tea Party, and badly underestimate, quite frankly, how far gone much of the American public really is. Perhaps a majority now are wedded to big government and it will be a long process turning this around in my opinion. You'd be right if the entire system as we know it is about to collapse, but I really don't see that in the cards. Then again, who knows...