...does anyone want to reduce polarization?
Gorbachev and Reagan, for all their bravado, did not want to come to blows and realized de-escalation was needed, badly. So despite being oil and water, they found where they could compromise.
But to give you the mentality of those who don't want a reduction in polarization, I also frequent Quora, and someone posted that Kherson as of today was retaken by Ukraine as of today. There was almost a 100 comments saying the usual "Slava Ukraine", "Donbas will fall back", "Crimea will be retaken and the bridge blown up", etc. Every once an awhile a person would ask for links for proof, ways to verify, etc. But the person's response "he had numerous sources" but could not give them out. Uhm, yeah, right. Those that were skeptical, got the comments deleted. And the "joy" continued. Obviously this person was trolling, but, it does point out we as a society, just want to be in an echo chamber and hear what we want to hear.
I've grown apart from long time friends because they listen only to one side and discredit everything else. I've seen a few posts here that suggest the fairness doctrine should be reintroduced....and I thought afterwards Anakin Skywalker at the end of Revenge of the Sith had a cakewalk.
This is a partisan site as is FR. A zero sum game. To the credit of DU creators, they created Discussionist, but that failed horribly. Why? The party is full of vocal "hate". Actual Republicans no longer control the Republican party. In the old days, R's and D's would thoroughly ravish each other during working hours. After that, they were at a local bar trying to hash out a compromise. But then came Newt Gingrich who even forbade using the same gym with Democrats and then the cable 24 hour news media (so they couldn't go to the bar to hash things out), etc. Add partisan websites, news media, etc.
This is what has created Cruz, DeSantis, etc. In the past, not a chance. It's no longer a situation of understanding, but how to out vilify the opposing party enough so you don't get primaried. Remember, Boehner and Obama had a good working relationship and met on the middle a number of times. Unfortunately for Boehner, he had too many nut cases in his party. And just gave up and walked out.
I have no problem working across the aisle to achieve meaningful legislation, even if it falls short of what we want. But now, the only meaningful legislation that can be accomplished is with our own moderates in the party when we have the votes. The GOP can put out legislation we agree with and as soon as they find out we agree with it, they will pull it. Because of Gingrich's "no compromise" mantra...when he did actually compromise on a number of issues. But those after him, took it as absolute law.
Much as we detest Romney, he is actually one of the sane ones in the party. Only problem is, you have the rest who are too chicken shit to oppose the Trump party and those who actually subscribe to it. If 9/11 happened today, many on the other side would say those liberals deserved it.
But as I like to point out to my R friends, the person who created the EPA and was looking at the possibility of creating Universal Health Care was a Republican.
The ironic thing is this, we need the likes of the Lincoln Project to be successful in getting their party back to reduce polarization. How on earth you do that as a Democrat? No easy task.
Anyway, I'm rambling....
= new reply since forum marked as read
