Re: I'll be totally honest, which may get me some flack. - Edit 1
Before modification by Burr at 04/09/2012 04:00:34 PM
Haven't done comparative studies. I think you'll probably have to ask me again in a few years. Right now though, I'll say that I think the competency/intelligence/etc of one person only has so much to do with the problem. I can't tell if it's just that I am paying attention, but I definitely feel the polarity of the parties so much more strongly now. I keep wondering if we've gone too far.
I've got to agree with this. As much as I fear the regression of my own interests that might come about in a Romney administration, overall I think the way things go does have more to do with the personality of our society than that of the individual politicians. At this point, neither Romney nor Obama (nor anyone else) could get themselves elected without pandering to either the Republican base or the Democratic base (not to mention castigating the other side as devils, not that that's anything new). What's funny is, I suspect they'd have made a great ticket together if we were in some utopia without a party system. But our polarization is self-reinforcing in that it creates a grand litmus test.