The DU Lounge
In reply to the discussion: My swan song, come get your grave dancing on, if that's your thing. [View all]Moostache
(9,895 posts)I know that is a terribly non-scientific sampling, but the increase in jury service requests dovetails with the increasing loss of discussion on the forums and increase in tribalism and lack of discourse.
I feel the website AND our country Balkanizing around me and I do not like it one bit. Being stuck in the Midwest (work and family situations will not permit me to move to the coasts or other regions I find more agreeable in temper and climate...), this is particularly depressing because the sharp divide precludes compromise and makes every issue a fight to the death as the cycle perpetuates itself and intensifies with each round.
The right wing lunatics tearing apart the GOP was one thing, but to see the DLC/Third Way/Corporatists and Progressives parting ways so sharply on the left has me wondering what the future holds as the current system grinds itself into oblivion. The US House and Senate and even the current SCOTUS (because of the Senate) are already broken and badly in need of repair. The two dominant parties in the national political system seem to be following suit rapidly. That is essentially our entire Federal Government and a large reason for the lack of real reform on long range fiscal and regulatory issues.
We need to break the cycle and reform from the ground up. The checks and balances were not meant to be sabots for the gears! (OK...that's maybe a bit too arcane of a reference...lol).
Sorry to see the OP go, but hoping the now inevitable can be shaped into something more than "vote for me because the alternative is too depressing to consider"...I'll be sticking around to find out, just a lot more morose than I had hoped to be.