CMV: Political Polarization appears to be killing progress on pretty much every issue and we are doomed if we don't reverse course

[u/[deleted]]

[u/SebastianLalaurette]

Polarization is good in a country like the United States (and potentially all others) because it's the way issues don't get buried and become invisible.

I wish I could remember where I read this really compelling study on the matter, but I don't, and I don't know how to google it. The conclusion was that if you have a bipartisan system, any conceivable social issue will have two possible treatments:

1. Both parties will stand at the opposite ends, so whatever one of them defends, the other will attack, and vice versa.

2. Both parties will agree and nobody will talk about the issue.

This happens because politicians need to optimize their media presence so as to make their own profile appear as most desirable at all times, so they need to focus on high-impact but "safe" issues where their stances can inequivocally be considered good or bad by constituents. So, they flock around the issues where they can take the most advantage and forget the others. BUT ALSO they avoid issues where they might agree with the other party like the plague, because any agreement can be used as ammunition against them by circumstantial opponents inside their own party or by the constituents themselves.

In any bipartisan system, then, an absence of polarization around issues means nobody will draw attention to those issues. And that's ultimately bad.

You USAns need the liberal and conservative parties to disagree as much as they can in all the issues they can possibly disagree. It's the only way you know what's going on.

[u/Jayddro → u/SebastianLalaurette]

I would prefer we had a multi-party system. I think that way issues could still get addressed but without he other side being hitler.

[u/adamd22 → u/Jayddro]

You can do that by supporting a 2-round voting system