Originally Posted by
BartenderElite
It wasn't always this way.
When Reagan was President, and Tip O'Neill was Speaker, the parties worked together. They compromised. They got stuff done. They would snipe at each other and it wasn't always pretty, but there was generally a spirit of comity and working together for the common good.
Part of Rush's raison d'etre was to make Republicans tougher & to fight. He was fairly open about this - he spoke about the idea that too many Republican leaders had been soft and let Democrats dictate things.
Rush single-handedly turned politics into a team sport. You belonged to one or the other, and you either won or you lost - and the other side was the enemy. There was no feeling that both sides wanted what was best for America and just disagreed on how to get there: the other side did NOT want what was best for America. They wanted power, and they were to be defeated at all costs.
Over 30 years, this has led to the extremes we see today. Both parties have drifted further from the center. There is almost no compromise anymore - we see things like McConnell openly stating at the start of Obama's admin that their sole purpose was to make him a one-termer, and Democrats spending too much time on Russia and trying to bring Trump down. It's a win-at-all-costs team sport now. It's not what our government was intended to be.
Along the way, things like civility got thrown to the side. The accepted tone today is characterized by distrust, lies, insults and even hate.
Rush was a giant in his industry, and forever transformed both radio and politics. While he got the ball rolling toward the division we see today, he also spawned hundreds who carry on with that work, on both sides. We're not getting back to the Reagan/O'Neil days anytime soon.
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