When, in your opinion, did this rabid partisanship begin?
Krugman had an interesting column on this very topic in the past week which can't be posted in polite company because of the wrongheaded policies of the NYTimes. And, of course, because it's written by Krugman, you won't like it.
He argues that such partisanship is part and parcel of periods in which the economic gap between income strata gets too large. In most recent times, the distance between low and high incomes was much lower from the end of WWII to the late 70s; and increased from then on. The first was a period of much less intense and bitter partisanship; the second of increasing so.
Moreover, he argues, and this will interest, Dale, that he, Krugman, guesses that a lower level of partisanship in US politics correlates to the size of the middle class. Good sized middle class equals lower levels of partisanship; as it decreases, partisanship increases.
If someone can find the piece someplace besides the NYTimes website, it would be interesting to read it. |
