Re:Down to the Suburbs
by mistermann on Thursday November 05, 2020 @07:42AM
(#24997723)
I sometimes wonder if there is an unseen fundamental problem (or many problems) hiding somewhere that we don't realize exists, and as a result we end up attributing the cause of our problems to what may often be red herrings.
After all, many far more reasonable approaches (incremental improvements, at least) to many things are usually fairly obvious, and I suspect most people wouldn't really be opposed to it (if one was to sit down and have a serious conversation about it that truly addresses their nuanced concerns)...and yet, decade after decade we seem to make little forward progress (or at least, "not enough" - see: BLM), while a collective feeling of confident, "righteous" frustration and rage with those "on" "the other side" (on both sides) builds.
The whole thing seems rather paradoxical, which to me is suggestive that we may indeed be missing something important in our system analysis.
1 People know their party's policy positions more than any other time in modern history
2 Legislators vote more along their party lines than at any point in history
3 People split ticket and switch votes less than any time
One partially confounding fact to my thesis here is that
4 People "identify" less with a party than at any time in history