Closing of the American Political Mind?

From at least as far back as Jay Leno's infamous interviews with the clueless folks on the beaches of Los Angeles, America has had a love affair with the stupidity of others (and ignorance of their own stupidity). Over the past few election cycles, there has been an even larger focus on conservative voters and their ignorance of the world around them. Last month on Bill Mayer's Real Time, Alexandra Pelosi famously offered a short documentary showing the less than toothsome political opinions of a number of Mississippians: You Tube. The latest comes from Slate's David Weigel, reporting on his escapades in the small Nevada town of Virginia City: Slate. 

The Pelosi video caused an outrage among many conservatives, who thought it unfairly portrayed the citizens of the poorest state in American and was simply agitprop for the left. Others have argued that it shows us how bad American politics has gotten. While I am incredibly troubled by the tone of these voters who are racist, sexist, anti-government, pro-gun and terribly misinformed (Obama is a Muslim, non-citizen socialist), I do find something troubling in the relish with which many liberals and progressives take smug pleasure in the ignorance of the electorate. Most troubling of all is what it means for democracy. As the Nevadan Kent argued in the Weigel piece, "If you're a democrat, you're my enemy." This appears to be the position of not only the right but the left as well and essentially closes off the channels for democracy to actually function.

I'm not so naive as to assume there is some halcyon past where everyone got along and debated with the manners of the queen, but there is something truly insidious about the way the two parties and its constituents see each other in contemporary politics. If the other is the enemy, then you slip into orthodoxy and blind allegiance to whatever your party happens to be doing -- whether it is hastening the destruction of the planet, allowing further accumulation of wealth at the top, screwing women or taking money from the very same corporations that are supporting the policies of your purported enemies. The reality is that democracy needs room for debate and compromise. It needs room for respect for the losers (and the winners). And it needs the rehumanization of the other to allow two to stand as equals in the arena of debate. 

Who benefits in a partisan environment where nothing gets done? Well, as a French politician reminded us a few years ago, the status quo and all those who benefit from it. In other words, the corporations and wealthy that have ushered us into the new Gilded Age. Divide and conquer usually progressed along racial lines (even if they were completely arbitrary and constructed by the colonizers as in Rwanda). Now the U.S. has created a new divide, the polarizing line between red and blue states or conservatives and liberals -- a line that many now seem unwilling to cross even if their futures relied on it. Unfortunately, it is increasingly true that they do!!!

P.S. In this environment, we might take The National Review firing a prominent contributor for penning an article on how kids can protect themselves from black people (Slatest) a positive sign.