PTxS ...the two-party system induces ideological rigidity. In the two-voice dialogue of American politics, there is a natural tendency for each party to oppose the other ones take on a given issue. In the case of climate change, there was a time when Democrats and Republicans both agreed on the reality of the problem and on the need for some form of carbon emissions reduction scheme. But the natural dynamics of political argument gradually led Republicans to first deny that any form of government carbon emissions regulations were needed, and then to claim that global warming had actually stopped, or that climate scientists were engaged in a conspiracy of exaggeration. Because, in a two-party system, all political questions end up ranged on a left-right axis, each side spends its time trying make more and more extremist claims in order to shift the Overton window. And political loyalty demands that one defend the positions held by ones own party; the political arena comes to feel like a permanent war zone, and dissent equals betrayal.” economist/blogs/democracyinamerica/2014/09/two-party-system
Posted on: Sat, 08 Nov 2014 19:08:37 +0000
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