Booing of Canadian national anthem underscores hyper partisanship era

A few days ago, fans at a San Jose Sharks playoff game booed the Canadian national anthem.  The Oilers, whose home town is Edmonton, Canada, were in town.  San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales apologized on behalf of the fans:

"This showed a lack of respect to our Canadian neighbors, to theplayers of both teams and to our own residents," Mayor Ron Gonzalessaid.

"I sincerely hope that this occurrence of bad behavior by a smallnumber of fans is an aberration caused by misplaced enthusiasm and anignorance of the expected courtesy that we should extend to all teamsand players in every stadium, ballpark and arena."

On one hand, the fact that it was a playoff game might have been the root cause for the anti-Canadian emotion that played out that night.  However, on the other hand, could any of us have imagined this happening during the 1990s?  Today this nation is more hyper-partisan than ever.  We are taught by news networks like Fox News that it is okay to be intolerant of other countries, and that polarized nationalism should replace universalized human decency.  Does having intolerance of other countries help affirm our superpower status, or does it encourage other countries to dislike us?