Everyone is polarized and reactionary nowadays. How to fix that?

[LumbergTech]

Originally posted by: StepUp
No change until we start caring. What was voter turnout for the last election?

kerry backed off from offering a true differing position...the democrats refused to use language that was identifiably different enough from the republicans and the people were like screw that we arent going to vote for kerry if he isnt going to offer us a true alternative,i despise bush and i despise kerry even more for not having the balls to actually offer a new plan

 

[Tom]

1. Historically, when the Democrats had the majority, there tended to be more compromise because there were two very different groups of Democrats, conservative Southern Democrats, and more liberal Northern Democrats. This meant there was more compromise within the party, and more compromise with Republicans to form working majorities.

2. Because Republicans were the minority party for a long time, they learned to be very disciplined in voting along party lines, this is something minorities have to do to have any power. For the most part, they've kept this discipline after becoming the majority party.

Because of this discipline they usually don't need to work with the Democrats, which is unfortunate because the real way Congress is supposed to work is representation of all Americans, not limited to the viewpoint of the current majority party.

That's why the Speaker of the House is the leader of the entire House, not just his party. How often have you heard Denny Hasterd express any interest in acting as anything but a Republican leader ?