Have you noticed growing assaults on free speech? Here? And here? And here?

[Geee]

Investors Business Daily:

This will be an unusual column--both to write and to read.

It's difficult because in the last several years so great has the political polarization become that we're jeopardizing our sense of nation, as in a collection of united people, and become more of a mere country.

Once upon a time, election campaigns were about dividing voters into one camp or another through the campaign season and election day.

Using fear, economics, self-interest, ethnicity, language, half-truths, untruths, family and regional allegiances, parties herded voters to the polls, instilling voter discipline by drawing lines among groups. After the election, and a finite period of mourning by losers, we re-assembled as a people. And moved forward.

But now, largely because it serves the ongoing self-interest of certain pols who once vowed to unify us, we have a perpetual campaign, a non-stop effort to assemble supporters for various political causes month after month, including but not confined to elections. So, we're always being divided. The healing time is gone. We lose sight of what we have in common.

[Valin]

2 things things have been going on.

 

1. The growth of the 24 hour news cycle/digital news delivery.

2. The growth of the size and scope of government make election so much more important.

a. (In spite of what some say) the ideological differences/world view between the two parties have become sharper.

[nickydog]

So is it a phase that will eventually play itself out, or is this how it's always going to be from now on?