Dogmatic ideological parties tend to splinter the political and social fabric of a nation, lead to governmental crises and deadlocks and stymie the compromises so often necessary to preserve the freedom and achieve progress.
Remarkably it describes the position our politics are in today to a T, thanks in large part to the continuing shift to the right of the Republican party over the past two decades. The quote can be found in a new biography of Mitt Romney http://amzn.to/wWO1Ux but it wasn't uttered by the man currently running for the GOP nomination.
In fact, those are the words of his father George Romney when in 1964 as governor of Michigan, he declined to endorse or campaign for his party's nominee Barry Goldwater. George Romney clearly a man who would not find a place in the 2012 GOP.
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Amazon.com: The Real Romney (9780062123275): Michael Kranish, Scott Helman: Books
Amazon.com: The Real Romney (9780062123275): Michael Kranish, Scott Helman: Books
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Imagine two people on a see-saw, but they are not sitting. They are friends close in the middle. If the see-saw starts tipping, they try to compensate for the other, politely, by simply moving more to the outside where their weight has more leverage. However, in turn, their counterpart who they were very close to will politely do the same rather than challenge the other's move.
The point of this story is to illustrate that polarization happens in both directions. And, probably for some grand balance. The problem happens when they grow so far apart they begin to fear the other side, or even secretly hope to eliminate them.
The more we all embrace each other's fears and validate them the closer they will come back to us. Of course the political motivations for power are outside the scope of this analogy, but then again that is why we are a democracy. We can appeal to each other's base, talk to each other and be real friends to people, and go around their heads.
The panopticon is a fascist structure to keep people from gaining any power from assembly. It keeps people from understanding each other. And unfortunately it seems to be how we are self-assembling today in the USA.
We need more neighbors, and fewer national political commentators.