Janet, your son noticed something significant. The unending partisanship was not a feature of our public service prior to the last 40 years. Professionalism was the ethos rather than trying to assure a partisan outcome which seems the norm now. Of course there ARE public servants, as we have discussed, who don't hue to nonpartisanship or who are incompetent or self-serving but it's the minority by far. interestingly Heather Cox Richardson made a somewhat similar observation last night by arguing that the Reagan moves against gov't were a back door way to protect one segment of our society at a high, high cost to others. Thank you for continuing to offer such pointed observations from your perch! Happy New Year!
Interesting observations. Clown show may be an understatement. Still, the seeds here go back to when the parties diverged from working to the benefit of the nation to the promotion of party over country. I don't pretend to know how that happened, but it feels like it happened around the Reagan presidency, reinforced by the Gingrich speakership, and the "Contract with America." Research on how members of Congress no longer crossed party lines for bi-partisan purposes goes back even a bit further. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/04/23/a-stunning-visualization-of-our-divided-congress/ is my favorite visualization of this separation. I heard rhetoric today about how the Republicans must save America from the Democrats. Really? I understand frustration with Democratic policy, regulatory policy, and so on from Republicans. But does the country need saving from that? Or does the country need saving from polarization? Because that's what I think is needed. Sigh.
Yes, I think the 80s is correct and I believe Gingrich had a great deal to do with personalizing attacks as Reagan went after government itself. I am not saying the 40 years’ uninterrupted Dem control over the House didn’t play as it did but this is most definitely worse.
One of our sons (30-something and budget officer for a small city, might want to be a city manager someday, but I can't imagine why?!), was interested in reading some of the planning and budgeting studies and reports my husband had from 40 years ago when he began his career in state government. At one point son looked up and said quietly as if awestruck, "Nobody writes reports like this anymore. These people knew what they were *talking* about." I know it's a cliche that old folks think no one is as smart/capable/whatever as we were back in the day. Sometimes there's something to it. Some of the elected "leaders" creating this turmoil are the most unimpressive of mediocre human beings and they don't know what they're talking about...and they were elected by masses of other unimpressive human beings.
On the other hand, I know that the realm of politics has always to some degree involved stunts and mal intent and attention grabs and ego trips and bluster and corruption, whether overt or not. If the shift in our political scene over the past decade weren't so scary, it would be easy to roll eyes and write these folks off as insufferable fools with delusions of grandeur. I am waiting for a few grown-ups to emerge from the chaos and take control of the situation, but am not sure they will have the courage.
Thanks for these posts, I like others' comments, too.
Janet, your son noticed something significant. The unending partisanship was not a feature of our public service prior to the last 40 years. Professionalism was the ethos rather than trying to assure a partisan outcome which seems the norm now. Of course there ARE public servants, as we have discussed, who don't hue to nonpartisanship or who are incompetent or self-serving but it's the minority by far. interestingly Heather Cox Richardson made a somewhat similar observation last night by arguing that the Reagan moves against gov't were a back door way to protect one segment of our society at a high, high cost to others. Thank you for continuing to offer such pointed observations from your perch! Happy New Year!
Interesting observations. Clown show may be an understatement. Still, the seeds here go back to when the parties diverged from working to the benefit of the nation to the promotion of party over country. I don't pretend to know how that happened, but it feels like it happened around the Reagan presidency, reinforced by the Gingrich speakership, and the "Contract with America." Research on how members of Congress no longer crossed party lines for bi-partisan purposes goes back even a bit further. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/04/23/a-stunning-visualization-of-our-divided-congress/ is my favorite visualization of this separation. I heard rhetoric today about how the Republicans must save America from the Democrats. Really? I understand frustration with Democratic policy, regulatory policy, and so on from Republicans. But does the country need saving from that? Or does the country need saving from polarization? Because that's what I think is needed. Sigh.
Yes, I think the 80s is correct and I believe Gingrich had a great deal to do with personalizing attacks as Reagan went after government itself. I am not saying the 40 years’ uninterrupted Dem control over the House didn’t play as it did but this is most definitely worse.
One of our sons (30-something and budget officer for a small city, might want to be a city manager someday, but I can't imagine why?!), was interested in reading some of the planning and budgeting studies and reports my husband had from 40 years ago when he began his career in state government. At one point son looked up and said quietly as if awestruck, "Nobody writes reports like this anymore. These people knew what they were *talking* about." I know it's a cliche that old folks think no one is as smart/capable/whatever as we were back in the day. Sometimes there's something to it. Some of the elected "leaders" creating this turmoil are the most unimpressive of mediocre human beings and they don't know what they're talking about...and they were elected by masses of other unimpressive human beings.
On the other hand, I know that the realm of politics has always to some degree involved stunts and mal intent and attention grabs and ego trips and bluster and corruption, whether overt or not. If the shift in our political scene over the past decade weren't so scary, it would be easy to roll eyes and write these folks off as insufferable fools with delusions of grandeur. I am waiting for a few grown-ups to emerge from the chaos and take control of the situation, but am not sure they will have the courage.
Thanks for these posts, I like others' comments, too.