Politics

[davidklecha]

I don't generally talk about politics. Not really even going to talk about it now. I consider myself pretty apolitical.

But do you know what gets my blood pressure up? Naked partisanship.

Seriously. Especially when it comes to the character of politicians. I mean, I understand the psychology behind wanting to rationalize the bad behavior of One's Favorite Politico, but it's still seriously irritating to see people blasting Others for precisely the same sort of behavior.

I so hate partisan politics. Hate it hate it hate it.

Comments

[pewtergryphon.livejournal.com]

But the extreme partisanship has always been there. It's just that, until the last 10 years or so, it was mostly confined to the fringe groups in both parties.

Yes, it's common, but it always has been. And actually, I think it's becoming less common in the general population than it was before.

I knew people, growing up, who'd vote for anybody their party put up-- a sort of "My party, right or wrong" viewpoint. I don't know anybody who thinks that way nowadays. In fact, I know very few people who self-identify as being part of either party-- and the two declared-party people I know best (a Republican and his Democrat wife) are quite willing to cross party lines and vote for the other guy if they can't stomach "their" party's candidate.

ISTR reading somewhere that people who self-identify as independent voters (like me) became the majority in this country a couple of presidential elections ago. And by definition an independent isn't voting the party line.

But that means that the people left in the parties are largely of two groups-- those who see the Party as a means to power and the fanatically partisan types who used to be counterbalanced by all the people who were more moderate in their political views.

Which goes a long way towards explaining why the level of vitriol and double-standard-ing has become so high on both sides.