The sad thing is that the people who seem to be most extreme about these political concerns are the ones who are most easily are distracted from the real, underlying, and persistent issues via one of the simplest and oldest tricks of all. Keep their attention focused outwards against the infidel, so that they don't turn around and realize that, despite both parties having had many, many at bats, we still have the same issues.

What's the old saying about the definition of insanity? That it's doing the same thing over and and over and expecting a different result, despite the fact that it never happens. The dems/pubs desperately need to keep everyone's attention on the infidel, otherwise it would become obvious that neither of them have the answers, and this is largely just a game of thrones.

Not that I'm so cynical as to believe that no one in government wants to do the right thing at least some of the time. But ultimately the situation as it is and has been for some time is more about firing up the troops and doing as much damage as possible to the other team to help us get to or stay in the big chair.

As I've said before, it's the fault of the people that this situation exists. And, since it's pretty well proven that the people as whole aren't going to change, this situation is very unlikely to change. Throw in the fact that opinion and image manipulation has grown from an art to a well developed science over the last decades and it just gets that much worse.