03-02-2017, 11:35 AM
(03-02-2017, 11:16 AM)treee Wrote: It's an interesting theory for sure. There definitely is something creating the hyper-partisanship we see today and I hope sociologists continue to study the potential causes of it. I personally tend to think it is more specifically orchestrated than he is suggesting. Hyper-partisanship benefits a lot of monied interests through holding legislative bodies in gridlock.
Well, and this is something a lot of people don't necessarily realize, and that is those monied interests are doing more and more in the legislature, anyway. When you look at information about staff sizes in Washington, you will see that over the past 40 years there has been a significant decline in congressional staffers. Senators and Representatives are relying more and more on lobbyists to research issues and write legislation. Staffers are being pushed to local offices for constituent service types of jobs instead of being the ones to really work through issues with the official they work for.
"A great democracy has got to be progressive, or it will soon cease to be either great or a democracy..." - TR
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." - FDR
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." - FDR
