Is the "tone of the rhetoric" the reason people are upset?

Every talking head on TV is talking about the rhetoric being the problem in this country and the reason why us little people are a little upset. I sorta thought it had something to do with the unmanageable debt, dependence on depleting foreign oil supplies, collapsing economy, broken monetary system, off shoring of jobs, tax money paying for bonuses for millionaires, loss of civil liberties... things like this. I sorta think that a free Democratic country is going to have some nasty "rhetoric" to expunge in this environment. What do they mean by "toning down the rhetoric"?