Why Can't We All Just Get Along?

In light of the looming stalemate over extending the Bush tax cuts, the mainstream media has resurrected catcalls about political polarization.  If Republicans and Democrats could just get along, the nation would be better off, goes the media's disingenuous whine.

The talking heads and their keyboarding cousins act as if the current discord is a new phenomena.  Many claim today's churlish political climate is the worst ever.  Pundits pine for the days when bipartisanship was a Washington hallmark.  

The problem with the media's hypothesis is that it's sheer nonsense.  American politics, for better or worse, have always been fractured, chaotic and emotionally charged.  Sharp divisions between the parties have existed for as long as their has been a democracy.  It is a deliberate distortion to suggest otherwise.

The dirty little secret is that the news outlets have a vested interest in creating political dissension because they believe confrontation lures viewers and sells papers.  Reporters seek out those with opposing views, the more extreme the better, to produce compelling stories dripping with controversy.

That's why the media shoulders much of the blame for Americans' frustration with the tone of political discourse.  Online, on radio, in print and over the airwaves the constant negative media drumbeat has shaped the public's view of Washington's political stew.

There is no denying the media's influence.  Most Americans depend exclusively on big media for their news about Beltway politics. Media conglomerates belch political drivel almost non-stop, 24-hours a day.  That is a relatively new development, but the politics have never been polite.   

In fact, there has always been mean-spirited edginess to American politics.  President John Adams was skewered for being toothless and senile by his opponents.  Andrew Jackson was branded a jackass so often that the donkey became the symbol for the Democratic Party.

Don't forget Thomas Jefferson's running mate Aaron Burr shot and killed Alexander Hamilton over political skulduggery.  A trademark of the American political experience has been partisanship, name-calling and bitter personal disputes.  Like it or not, democracies are often messy like that.

Many in the media lay the blame for the current partisanship at the feet of the two parties.  Both are accused of adhering to entrenched political ideology instead of embracing compromise.  This too is a misguided notion perpetuated by the lame-stream media.

Throughout history, the two parties have more often that not embraced positions that are polar opposites. Think slavery and abolition during President Lincoln's tenure.  Or the row over big government when President Franklin Roosevelt presided over the country.  

Actually, competing ideologies are a good thing because it gives voters a clear choice.  When the two parties have been in harmony, the media and voters grumble there is not "a dime's worth of difference" between them.  You can't have it both ways.

Despite the natural tension between political parties, the nation's elected leaders have managed in the past to put aside acrimonious differences and work together.  In every case, there has been a president willing to risk political capital to negotiate the compromise.  Examples abound in recent years.

President Ronald Reagan famously collaborated with Democrat House Speaker Tip O'Neil to make changes in Social Security, despite opposition on both sides of the aisle.  President Bill Clinton and his nemesis House Republican leader Newt Gingrich joined together to pass a landmark welfare reform bill.

Even the much maligned George W. Bush reached across the party divide to Democrat Senator Ted Kennedy in passage of the No Child Left Behind Act, establishing national education standards for public schools.

Which brings us to today's political impasse in Washington.

President Barrack Obama cannot point to a single example during the last four years when his leadership was critical in reaching a middle ground on any national issue.  His signature Obama Care law was jammed down the throats of Republicans.

If the media really wants to find out why the current House and Senate are so dysfunctional, they need look no further than 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.  The truth is President Obama has no intention of trying to mediate for the grand solutions championed by the American media elite.

He is the chief reason we can't all just get along.