The era of hyper-partisanship

American politics has been gripped by hyper-partisanship for about the last 14 years. I would trace the beginning of this trend to 1994, when Newt Gingrich led a GOP takeover of the House of Representatives and promptly sought to wrest control of the ship of state from the actual chief executive, Bill Clinton. Had Gingrich merely fallen short in trying to set himself up as a rival to Clinton, things might have been different. Unfortunately, the conflict escalated in a way that neither man likely intended at the time. Clinton saw Gingrich and the conservatives as a useful foil he could use to maintain his popularity with both liberals and moderates without having to engage in the kind of heavy lifting one normally associates with presidential greatness. Clinton didn't need to fight a war overseas to secure his legacy; he was fighting -- and winning -- a war at home. It was Clinton versus the conservatives.

Oddly, the conflict had very little to do with ideology. Indeed, that was the beauty of it. While Clinton was portraying himself as defending America against the dark forces of conservatism, nobody seemed to notice that he was governing the country somewhat conservatively himself. Following the defeat of HillaryCare, he abandoned any effort toward wholesale liberal reform. In fact, his signature legislative accomplishment proved to be welfare reform. Even his small-ball initiatives often had a conservative bent, such as the program to put 100,000 new cops on the street.

In the end, Clinton did at least four things that helped create a perfect storm for hyper-partisanship over the ensuing decade: First, he engaged in a trumped up war against conservatives in order to elevate his standing with liberals and moderates. Second, other than waging war against the right, he starved liberals of any meaningful accomplishments on their behalf. Third, he handed conservatives a bludgeon by engaging in a reckless relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Finally, he survived the Republicans' bludgeon attack.

The net result of all this was to render the left deeply embittered against both Clinton and conservatives. After Al Gore's electoral defeat -- itself a source a hard feelings on all sides -- they demanded and secured a liberal takeover of the Democratic Party.

On the conservative side, the Clinton years left the right feeling frustrated over their inability to undermine Clinton's popularity and the fact that policy debates -- which the GOP should have dominated -- had been overshadowed by personality.

While the Clinton years spawned the ugly rancor between the left and the right, the rise of the internet has only fueled the trend. The problem isn't that the internet allows those of all political stripes to express their own opinions. The problem is that it allows everyone to have their own facts. People increasingly rely on the internet for their information, but most of the political news they receive comes from (or through the filter of) highly partisan sources. These outlets --bloggers, mostly -- steadfastly refuse to "cover" stories that don't advance their own political agenda. Take the "torture" issue, for example. To a reader of liberal blogs, it is a given that the Bush supports the use of torture in the War on Terror and that this policy renders the Administration the legal and moral equivalent of an international criminal enterprise. To find a conservative rebuttal of that point of view is not impossible, but it takes a certain amount of effort. The reason? Right-wing bloggers simply haven't given the issue nearly the same amount of attention. The proverbial "other side of the story," once a required element of a standard piece of objective journalism, barely gets through at all. If you take a look at Memeorandum on a regular basis you see this pattern repeat itself day in and day out. Stories that one side finds utterly fascinating are virtually ignored by the other side. One can only conclude that those who frequent liberal sites are getting a decidedly different version of the "news" from those on the right.

"Cocooning" has made it possible to believe whatever you want. If you want to believe that Bush lied about Iraq, there are plenty of sites that will confirm that belief. If you want to believe Obama is a practicing Muslim, you can find that too. What's increasingly hard to find is any news source that is trusted by both sides to cover issues like these in a fair and balanced fashion.
The absence of such outlets don't exist makes it difficult to feel optimistic about the prospects for improving the tone of the political debate.