Here's a couple excerpts:
"Back in the twentieth century, there was room in American politics for bipartisanship, deliberation, negotiation, and compromise. President Lyndon Johnson needed the support of Republicans to pass his landmark Civil Rights Act. President Ronald Reagan spent his two terms coaxing legislation out of a Democratic Congress.
"Today, the sort of cooperation that took place between Johnson and Everett Dirksen or between Reagan and Tip O’Neill would be impossible. Our polarized constituencies would not allow it. As twentieth-century comic-strip character Pogo quipped, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
"If we are going to overcome dangerous polarization and return to a more constructive politics, we will have to stop rewarding media figures and politicians who amplify threats and demonize people on the other side. We will have to get back to treating those with whom we disagree as decent human beings, and we will need to insist that other participants in political discussion do the same."
Read the entire article here...
