"Further, I suspect that the parties are as much reflections of this reality as causes of it.3"
It's a positive feedback cycle where nearly step between the beginning and end is both a cause and an effect. This process has made politicians and voters alike have more extreme and like-minded than they were 40 years ago, and it's much more p…
"Further, I suspect that the parties are as much reflections of this reality as causes of it.3"
It's a positive feedback cycle where nearly step between the beginning and end is both a cause and an effect. This process has made politicians and voters alike have more extreme and like-minded than they were 40 years ago, and it's much more pronounced in the R party, where the extreme is AUTHORITARIAN, very different than the conservatism of 40, even 20 years ago. Voters keep choosing from among themselves, candidates with the more radical "solutions," who happen to be the ones most skilled in "sales pitches" (nothing sells better than painting the opponent as an "enemy"). They are also the least skilled at, or even interested in, SERVING the citizens and the Constitution. It becomes like a drug, for voters and the politicians, and particularly in the R party where authoritarianism is particularly attractive to the addicted. The more they have, the more they crave.
"Further, I suspect that the parties are as much reflections of this reality as causes of it.3"
It's a positive feedback cycle where nearly step between the beginning and end is both a cause and an effect. This process has made politicians and voters alike have more extreme and like-minded than they were 40 years ago, and it's much more pronounced in the R party, where the extreme is AUTHORITARIAN, very different than the conservatism of 40, even 20 years ago. Voters keep choosing from among themselves, candidates with the more radical "solutions," who happen to be the ones most skilled in "sales pitches" (nothing sells better than painting the opponent as an "enemy"). They are also the least skilled at, or even interested in, SERVING the citizens and the Constitution. It becomes like a drug, for voters and the politicians, and particularly in the R party where authoritarianism is particularly attractive to the addicted. The more they have, the more they crave.