Polarization of America

[donquixote99]

You know, I find this discussion quite off the beam, as I don't see polarization a matter of position on a 'political spectrum,' as much as it is a matter of attitude. There was a time in DC with the opposition was 'the loyal opposition,' frequently in style, often enough in reality. And I think the style can have it's influence on reality. But now we have about no 'men of goodwill,' who may differ; now we have two camps of enemies, at war.

And political position is rather irrelevant. It's oft been remarked that Obama's hated medical insurance reform is in origin a Republican plan. So polarization is not a matter of hating policy, actually. It's a matter of hating the other, of seeing them as enemies, as villains, as demons. And is spreads, for one hates those who give one hate, and that returned hate engenders wider and deeper hate in the other, and thus feedback amplification occurs and recurs.