There is a great documentary called "The Polarization of America". It discusses how much candidates need to raise to get into office, as well as how hard they need to work to stay in office. An interesting point made is that the congress members of the past were true friends. They attended each other's family functions and socialized together. By doing this, it was much easier for parties to compromise because it is much more difficult to argue with or be stubborn with someone you know personal or even consider to be a friend. Now, our representatives do not seem to know each other as well, which leads to the lack of compromise and sometimes even a disrespect for each other. If you have not seen this movie, please check it out.
Thanks for sharing this Rhoda, it seems really interesting indeed. In fact, it's all about the money, I mean, it doesn't care if you're good or bad, just how much money you can raise.
There's definitely been polarization taking place in America for the past twenty or so years. The parties have become more pure ideologically and that has meant that they don't work together nearly as much as they used to. You can see that as a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your perspective. Personally, I don't really see it as a bad thing. I think the less compromise, the better. As that means the parties aren't working together to pass bad legislation.
Polarization in the US exists for sure, you have the democrats and the republicans and that's it, there are no other parties or valid options, I don't know if it's the best system really.
I have a firm belief that there's much going on in the background that we don't know about. Let's just say that polarization or no polarization, in the distant past when politicians actually served the people who elected them, they had to work together for the good of the country. Then came a time when corporations controlled politicians . . . and that marked the end of politicians serving the voters. All the wrangling, etc isn't because they hate each other, they're doing exactly what they are expected to do — by the elite — which basically is, to do nothing. The status quo remains unchanged.
But they are getting nothing done. Each election brings anew power dynamic, but still the same result. Nothing. @rainman, I truly believe they should do away with campaign contributions. We are all online now, and everyone already has websites for the candidate. All they need do is create a forum similar to this and have the candidates discuss the issues, answer questions and post links to their issue positions. Then we can save that $5 billion spent on campaigns that year and put it toward the deficit.
