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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsEzra Klein: Politics is not here to please you
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/05/03/politics-is-not-here-to-please-you/Politics is not here to please you
Posted by Ezra Klein on May 3, 2013 at 10:32 am
snip//
Were not going to figure out a way to de-polarize the parties. Whenever you think of the irenic Washington of the 50s and 60s, think about Strom Thurmond, one of the most ideologically conservative members of Congress, serving as a Democrat. The de-polarized parties of the mid-20th century were a historic aberration that had more to do with race scrambling our politics than anything else. Theyre not coming back, and nor should they come back. The most conservative members of Congress shouldnt be in the Democratic Party, and nor should liberals be in the Republican Party. Voters deserve a choice between two distinct political coalitions.
But that means the work of repairing American politics is the work of understanding what tweaks and reforms are needed for the American political system to withstand this new world of polarized political parties. Thats going to be a lengthy and difficult project, and many political fights in the coming decades will, on some level or another, be about it.
But that work is made harder by pundits who continue to falsely promise that the glowing briefcase of president leadership can fix what ails us. Telling the American people that the only thing missing is the president being more awesome promises them the easy way out. It says that all they need to do to fix our politics is get inspired by a new presidential candidate and then cast a hopeful vote for him or her at the polls. Thats terrifically convenient, because that also happens to be the part of American politics that voters most enjoy participating in and that media most enjoys covering. (Its also convenient for the media, as Greg Sargent writes, because it keeps them from having to take sides in ongoing policy debates, but thats a slightly different issue.)
But since the problem in American politics is not presidential leadership, telling them that the president whether this one or a new one can fix it traps voters in an endless cycle of inspiration and disillusionment. They vote for presidents expecting them to be uniters, expecting them to change Washington, and then theyre bitterly disappointed when their heroes fail. But on this score, presidents are going to continue to fail because they cant possibly succeed.
Its not waving the white flag to say that the president cant fix Washington. Its waving the white flag to resist other explanations because theyre too depressing, or because the work they imply is too hard, or the fight they require will take too long. If the first step towards political recovery is admitting we have a problem, surely the second step is admitting what the problem actually is.
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Ezra Klein: Politics is not here to please you (Original Post)
babylonsister
May 2013
OP
What the problem actually is, is the economic system CAPITALISM. It has corrupted every system
Vincardog
May 2013
#2
Sekhmets Daughter
(7,515 posts)1. Ezra Klein is brilliant...
This is exactly what is wrong with our system and how we perceive our politics!
Vincardog
(20,234 posts)2. What the problem actually is, is the economic system CAPITALISM. It has corrupted every system
is has touched.
Our Production System
Our Religious System (It has become its' own religion)
Every one of Our Social systems.
There has to be a better way.
Lets' find it before it kills us all.
The problem is that humans like power.
When capitalism is the dominant system, its levers are used by some people to increase their power.
When communism is the dominant system, its levers are used by some people to increase their power.
When hybrids of socialism and capitalismare the cominant system its levers are used by some people to increase their power.
Change humans to fix the problem.
Vincardog
(20,234 posts)5. That is one opinion. Good luck changing human nature.
redqueen
(115,103 posts)4. K&R
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)6. But politics bends over backwards to please the NRA, big oil, bankers, big pharm, etc. etc...
that is the problem...
msongs
(67,420 posts)7. campaign as a democrat, govern like a republican, that is a problem as well nt