You're smart enough to extrapolate what I meant, right? Of course politicians are smart enough to hire people to do the math. Good luck getting anything passed through a D-Whitehouse and an R-Congress and having any of that math make a difference.
I wouldn't trust either to enact their plans, for some "deficits don't matter" while they're in power whatever proclamations of conservatism they make -- but that's harsh reality.
This was my original point, but I wasn't clear.
No, I understand what you meant, and you're mostly right. The American political duality may be so intractable that any degree of harmony is simply insufferable. We might have to look fondly upon the days of pragmatists like Gingrich willing to think the unthinkable of conceding ground in one place in order to gain it somewhere else and keep Government functioning. The
only reason such an environment can persists, I believe, is because people are too lazy to reason for themselves. To be able and willing to see that 2 + 2 ≠ 5 or 11. The politicians know when their policies are fundamentally unrealistic, there are leagues of statisticians, accountants, and economists keeping tab on the input/output of every current public policy, institution, or program. Countless more capable of accurately predicting the possible effects of future initiatives when accurately described. There are fact checkers for every claim and written records of every statement made in the public political theatre. There are an objective set of facts and measured effects available for anyone interested.
Whenever the Republicans claim obstructiveness is a democratic duty, they say something like "The American people believe in X, Y, and Z" -- that Obamacare is a government takeover of healthcare/ Obama is handing out welfare checks like Santa/ global warming is a hoax perpetrated by money-grubbing scientists/ Obama is an anti-business socialist -- and they do actually believe that. Why? Because they've been massively misinformed repeatedly through mendacious propaganda done on the GOP's behalf where even objective data is questioned by maliciously indoctrinated paranoia. How long did it take for "death panels" to go from the deranged tweets of a syphilitic mind, into the national discourse, all the way to erroneously eliminating funding for end-life care discussions? It's never that "informed experts agree with our position because of these rational arguments -- and here they are", just that "Some people who believe gossip as truth are deluded enough to support our positions".
Yes, partisanship is grid-locking, politicians are bastards, and it's dooming the United States and everyone who's forced to depend upon her. It's only allowed to be like this because voters don't care enough to distinguish fact from fantasy. Electing people who's solutions do not involve magic is a good start to restoring sanity.
