re: #178 dangerman

i agree 100%
i was speaking strictly in the context of the election
and when i said ‘no longer useful’ i meant, when they stop being cooperative after

in more general terms again, you are right

the R’s have turned politics, the nature of which was compromise to find a common way forward, into something else.

not even a conflict of interests, but a tribal, degenerative, brutal struggle for office power in which they, with righteous indignation believe that all dems, and only dems, do in fact behave despicably all the time.

i have no idea how to get back to politics being a clash of value systems, each of which is in some way valid, where it’s a competition between basically well-intentioned people who see the world differently.

Franklin thought the only hope for democracy was if people respected each other enough to compromise. it requires two sets of honest brokers.

I don’t know the answer either. All of your points are especially true as long as one side believes in a culture war and believes they are losing (which has been the social conservative world view for two generations at this point).