comment: >
  
  It's just polarization. Neither side is willing to meet in the middle on so many issues because the things we want are diametrically opposed to the point that there is no middle ground. 
  We met in the middle on abortion and that caused decades of terrorism, debate, and political shenanigans to undo the compromise. Now neither side is willing to accept anything less than their side winning that debate and codifying the extreme of their view into law.
  Every year that passes there are fewer and fewer stances where bipartisanship exists and we are heading further down that path. The polarization of our politics is going to get a whole lot worse before it gets any better. 
  Eventually one or both sides of the aisle will have to compromise and temper their views to allow bipartisan solutions, but that won't happen until one or both sides are punished on election day thoroughly and often enough to accept the reality that they have to change their platform rather than try to change the system or the voters.
context: I think its the social media-fication of everything.  Tik Tok, FB, youtube shorts is all geared toward having a very short attention span.  People don't want to read something, or research anything when forming their opinions.  They get 30 second scare ads pumped to their eyeballs, and increasingly 15 second political ads.  You can't convey a meaningful point in 15 seconds.
  And then you couple that with terrible education, and its a recipe for disaster.  In my city, 75% of high school seniors cannot read or do math at grade level.  And that doesn't include the 30-40% who drop out, I'm going to guess 90% of the dropouts cannot read.  When you have an illiterate and innumerate populace, and you pump them full of garbage ads...  Yeah, they don't listen because they cannot understand.
  Political debates are just a shitshow.  I can't recall the last time I saw a politician make a coherent point in a debate, and then the opponent attempted to refute the point with facts and logic.  Its just idiots yelling at each other and talking over each other, trying to get a zinger.  Lincoln Douglas debates ain't happening. >
  
  I would agree here but don't discount the effect of reddit here as well.
  Popular opinions are almost always up voted. But comments that go against popular opinions are down voted.
  But popularity isn't a marker of good debate. Good debate is both sides being able to see and talk to each other and discuss. >
  
  Recommend podcast: The Rest is Politics with Alistair Campbell & Rory Stewart.
  They touch on this issue in one of their episodes in regards to politicians who consider 30 second social media videos more important that parliamentary debate. This means that they try to score a quick quip rather than discuss in measured arguments. >
  
  This was explored in Neil Postman's famous book "Amusing ourselves to death", which explores how the medium of television (and later internet) are geared towards entertainment and quick rewards. As a result our political discourse became entertainment, then just quick confirmation bias rewards.
  I believe it also is covered partly by Noam Chomsky's ideas on Manufacturing Consent.
  Tldr: We used to read, now we don't, now we dumb. >
  
  That's just Donald "Grab her by the pussy don't even ask" Trump making America great again. You get the standard of political discussion that people vote for. Republicans couldn't bring that bar low enough. >
  
  Is that your impression from New Zealand? >
  
  It’s correct either way >
  
  There can be no real dialogue if one side is basing its political position on “facts” that don’t exist. >
  
  We love to straw man but hate to steel man. 
  It’s always the other side that doesn’t want an honest debate, right? They’re the ones that are causing this problem. 
  I think it’s a good guys versus bad guy dichotomy. >
  
  I feel you, bro. But I gotta say that when one side would like to have abortion rights and higher taxes on the super wealthy and the other side thinks the election was stolen and possibly Democrats  are pedophile satanists, kinda makes it hard to meet in the middle, ya know? >
  
  ...do you know what a straw man is? >
  
  99% of Republican culture war nonsense? >
  
  Which culture war issues do you believe are nonsense? >
  
  Which ones aren't? >
  
  I question the premise that anything has changed - instead, it just feels more immediate and large because it’s in front of us.  
  Look at how republicans treated Obama.  Look how democrats treated W.  Look at Gingrich impeaching Clinton and the Starr Report going from Whitewater to Lewinsky.  Look at how much democrats hated Reagan.  We can keep going back.  Kennedy. FDR.  Hell, let’s look at Grant getting beaten up for drinking.  Lincoln’s opponents spent a bunch of energy the claim he looked like an ape.  Think Andrew Jackson was a deep intellectual who didn’t negatively campaign on the worst version of his opponent’s  ideas?  Further back during the colonial era, George Washington made damn sure to provide a whole bunch of free whiskey to voters when he was getting elected to the house of burgesses. 
  Things like issues or grand debates might seem like they were important.  But fear mongering, attacking opponents, and so on have a long history.  I think maybe you have an idealized view of the past. >
  
  Kinda like Putin asking for dialog with Ukraine if you ask me.  The GOP needs to fess up and take ownership of their despicable actions and rhetoric before there is a space for discussion.