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| My sticker from a day when I voted in person on election day. (dwm) |
While our democratic republic drifted, then ran to the left and the right over the past 30 - 40 years; the last 12 has seen the political center practically disappear.
Primary elections where only people claiming membership of a particular party vote tend to see the die-hard true-believers show up on election day, which rewards the candidate pushing to the edges of their ideology.
That's not an environment where civic-minded community leaders raise their hands in service of their town, city, or state.
Throw in partisan news platforms and social media, and you get a system that plays "gotcha" 24 hours a day - 7 days a week. When President George H.W. Bush famously said "No new taxes," during the campaign and later made the sensible decision to raise some taxes in hammering out a new budget with Congress; the campaign revolved on a sound bite.
When I covered the legislatures in Iowa and South Dakota, there was politics - but the two sides could sit down together and reach a compromise. Compromise is now a dirty word.
Conservative Republican President Ronald Reagan met with Liberal Democrat House Speaker Tip O'Neil and got things done while none of their supporters assumed they were going over to the other side.
The diatribes and hot takes make politics entertaining, so should we be surprised we have entertainers entering politics?
Everyone has the right to run for office. It's up to us, the voters, to carefully consider who the best man or woman is for the job.
I think we need calm voices and clear heads. Frankly a little boring would be refreshing as well.
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