Letter To The Editor / Our Coarsened Culture

  Everyone complains about how coarse and polarized our society has become, and some have pointed out how much better it was when Congressmen and their families lived in Washington and our elected officials socialized, worked, compromised and solved problems together.

    It wasn’t that long ago that political parties used to fight for the center and they overlapped ideologically.  There were moderate and liberal Republicans, like Governors Nelson Rockefeller

and Bill Scranton, and lots of ultra conservative Southern Democrats.  Today, not only can’t the Radical Right and the Liberal Left work together and do their job, they can’t even be civil to colleagues they perceive as the evil enemy.

    The primary cause has been a tragic confluence of two destructive and increasing social forces:  secularism and popularism.  In other words, the “them versus us” syndrome grew out of bigotry against those who think (and often look and act) differently which merged with anti-government and anti-establishment cynicism.  The media fueled this conflagration by fragmenting into partisan outlets for Cassandras who predict, often without factual support, disaster if political adversaries gain power.

    Under conditions where standards of professionalism and civility no longer seem to apply, and endless political campaigns are driven by dark money, it’s difficult for the electorate to obtain objective facts and analyses and reach reasonable judgments about what’s best for the country.