Something to think about

This exchange is from Victor Davis Hanson's website:

Question: "The wealth and power that Rome accumulated within a couple of generations, it seems, led to two civil wars and the destruction of the Republic. I feel as though our political situation is becoming as partisan and could very well end in some type of civil strife within another generation. Am I way off base here?"

Hanson: "I can’t quite adjudicate all your comparisons, but I share your worry about polarization and think this next campaign will be the nastiest in some time. I didn’t really dislike personally Bill Clinton, although I felt he weakened the United States abroad. But there were many on the Right who did—and gave him no fair hearing, especially about his commendable though belated attack on Milosevic. Yet, their animus has been trumped by Bush-haters. And we are now in a spiral whose logical end is sort of frightening."

I have long felt the same way. President Clinton gets no credit for the job he did on the economy or for taking out Milosevic. Yes many of the things he did were bad - Travelgate, Monicagate, weakening of the Armed Forces, a completely botched healthcare reform, etc - but the level of hatred for him was beyond anything that I have experienced in my lifetime. The hate for Clinton was ten fold the hate for Richard Nixon.

Now the hate for George W. Bush seems to be ten fold the hate for Clinton. The left wing of the Democratic Party hates Bush much more than they support any candidate or position. If Bush was to support the Pope - the left would become instantly anti-Catholic. If Bush supported Arafat (small chance of that) - the left would be fervently pro-Israel.

I don't think that it is a "spiral whose logical end is frightening" though. I believe that two things will stop the spiral. First the center will tire of the ceaseless hate and second a charismatic centrist leader will emerge (probably in 2008 from either the Republican or Democratic Party). Things can't get worse than the days of Andrew Jackson. My guess is that within 10 years we'll have a return to civility in politics.