I got into a rare political discussion yesterday. It's rare, because people have become so afraid of discussing politics in the Trump era that it has become even more taboo than it was a decade ago. I haven't heard a single opinion voiced about impeaching the president outside of media (social included). People just don't talk about it anymore.
There were a handful of adults, and one teenager, involved in the discussion. That's probably why it started in the first place. The teenager asked a question about how the electoral college worked, and who had elected Trump. (She had the impression the people had elected Hilary, but that the electoral college stepped in and voted for Trump. Well, uh,...…….kind of a little bit, but......this girl is an honor student at one of our fine institutes of public education.)
Anyway, none of us were hyperpartisans, but the one thing that all of us 40-60 year olds agreed upon was that the world had become so much more partisan since our youth. I related that when I was in college, a friend of mine became the Democratic nominee for a congressional seat. We lived in a safe Republican district, and no real politician ran for it. In doing campaign research, we had a book where various special interest groups posted their approval ratings of incumbent Congressmen. e.g. Certain groups would track how their representatives voted on key votes, and give them a rating one way or another. One congressman might get a 60% from some farm group, or an 80& from the teachers' union, or a 0% from the NRA.
Today, such a book would be practically useless. Most congressmen would be scoring close to 100% or close to 0%, because practically every vote is very close to a straight party line vote.
I think that is the worst element of our political system today, and while partisanship has been present since the beginning, it really is worse now.
With respect to impeachment, I can guarantee you that there are Democrats in congress who don't think that Trump's actions warranted impeachment, and there are Republicans who think that they did. And yet, only a couple of Representatives crossed the line on the vote to impeach, and no Senators are expected to cross the lines when the vote is taken on Wednesday. Mitt Romney is being punished merely for crossing the line on a procedural vote.
It's a problem. Mitch and Nancy aren't supposed to have that kind of power, but they do. And when casting a vote for the senate or the house, voters are supposed to evaluate the people and their positions, not merely whether there's a D or an R after their name.
I don't have any solutions, but I really think it's a problem.
