The first dirty (polarized) mind.

British politics is dirty and noisy since who knows when. That’s the Brits history, and that’s their problem. The problem with US dirty politics is that it:

1. Drives up costs for candidates.
2. Has the potential to drive away capable potential candidates.
3. Confuses the hell out of everyone so we no longer know what the issues are, let alone what the arguments are really about.
And 4. Make it possible for complete idiots, who have money and know how to play the game, to win.

And isn’t it interesting that, although it sometimes seems as though everyone hates this sorry state of affairs, nothing ever changes. And in fact, it gets even worse.

Except something does change.

In part because we’ve had so much practice at throwing dirt, and in part because electronic media technology has made it easier to throw, we’ve turned the volume up so loud that the only way to be heard is to:

1. Saturate the environment with electronic media.
2. Throw as much dirt as one possibly can.
3. Find something catchy to oppose, then run with it – government, taxes, social programs, gun control, abortion – it almost does not matter.

We don’t educate and negotiate, we bring people together by getting them angry and then rally around a cause. For one purpose only – to win the next election. Continue this cycle of rallying around emotional statements in order to attract the most press and the largest donors, and eventually you train citizens to accept two things:

1. The important issues are – few, and simple.
2. Polarization.

“Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” If just one film could possibly save a government from itself, this is the one: incorruptible idealist, single-handed takes on dirty Washington politics. In the film, he wins a battle. In real life…well in real life, there is no Mr. Smith.

Question: Why does it seem that few, if any, fair-minded, honest, clear-headed, straight-shooter, Congresswomen/men appear to get much notice? Assuming there are some. You know, down-to-earth, hard working, maybe even middle-class, or God forbid, working class Joe, The Plumber types, without the prefabricated agenda. Who are they? Where are they?

Just for fun let’s reverse the film plot and create a Washington populated entirely of Mr. Smiths, all honest, idealistic, dedicated, and intelligent. Now let’s see how we can corrupt it, see how these things start.

So, here we see Mr. Smith, and instead of defending himself in Congress, he is surrounded by fellow believers in fair-minded political discourse, working out some legislative detail with bipartisan participation (a difficult sentence to even write).

In the film, Smith was appointed, but eventually he runs for office, opposed by Mr. Jones who, wouldn’t you know, is equally honest, idealistic, dedicated, and intelligent. But wants to be elected, maybe a little more than Smith (Smith after all, was appointed).

In a campaign, all sorts of things motivate a candidate – financial contributors, loud constituents, hot issues. Dirty politics being the end of a journey, starts when a candidate takes a first step – away from Mr. Smith, and closer to trying to win, above all else. When politics is dirty, citizens who then become politicians, eventually appear dirty.

Several generations later, Mr. Jones’s relative, or maybe Mr. Smith’s relative, has learned how to respond to pre-election aggression by being more aggressive than his opponent. This may sound a bit Darwinian, but eventually, the little fish (citizens) teach the big fish (politicians) how to go fishing. Generations later, the new Jones’s will think, “I’m going to (radio, TV, Blog) a (negative) partial fact about my opponent just days before the election so he won’t have time to challenge my statement.”

Congress has become almost completely polarized on every major issue, according to party. Which means, Congressmen/women have all taken sides even before each side has stated a rational for a position: ALL Republicans vote one way and ALL Democrats vote another. Sheer coincidence that each intelligent independent representative just happens to vote the same way as all the other intelligent independent thinkers in their own political party – Not.

Once you know the other person is going to throw everything they possibly can at you during a campaign, or vote in Congress, the reflex action is to go on the offensive. And so, becomes the cycle, quick to throw more dirt, and band together tribe members until clear lines are drawn.

That is what we want, isn’t it? Clearly defined distinctions between two opposing sides? It is what we want – we’ve been trained.