By Shane Kastler
A question was asked of me on the website Quora.com. Here is the question, followed by my answer. How do we return to productive political discource? Is there any road back from the contentious, partisan mockery of democracy we have established?
MY ANSWER: Historically speaking, there seems to be an “ebb and flow” in how contentious politics is. Naturally, we see things from the perspective of how they currently are, since this is right before our eyes. But anytime you have differing groups with differing viewpoints on how things should be done; there will be a likelihood of deep contention.
Some of the partisan smear tactics of America’s founding fathers would shock people today. Let us not forget, the first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton died by being shot to death in a dual with one of his political opponents. And this was after newspapers of the day published lurid details of an affair Hamilton was involved in. An affair, he admitted to, by the way. John Adams vs. Thomas Jefferson got very heated and ugly at times, though they reconciled years later. And that says nothing, of how contentious it got in 1860 when the country literally divided into two separate countries because of political differences. My point is, politics has always been nasty to some extent, and it always will be.
With that said, there have also been times of surprising bipartisanship and civility. It seems hard to imagine that in 1984, Reagan won the reelection by winning 49 states! And while his political opponents despised him, there was enough agreement in the nation as a whole, for him to win a landslide. I cannot imagine America ever being that much in agreement again, on either side.
Politics is all about power; and under America’s form of government politicians are elected by voters. One of the inevitable consequences of this is that politicians will stir up their base by demonizing their opponents, so they can win reelection. In the mind of the politician, there must be ample villains out there, to justify their being elected to protect their constituents from such villains. To be sure, some of the villains are real; but often times their faults are exaggerated for political purposes.
So to answer the question: No. I do not think there will ever be any meaningful move to a less contentious political climate. There might be slight movements that direction, but they will always be minimal and temporary. That’s just the nature of the beast.
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