Partisanship: America's Second Civil War?

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Ronald Brownstein argues that entrenched politics has essentially frozen America's political discourse.

Partisan politics have grown so extreme that the ongoing battle between the two major sides in Washington, D.C., amounts to America's second war.

That's the argument presented by L.A. Times columnist Ronald Brownstein in his new book, The Second Civil War: How Extreme Partisanship Has Paralyzed Washington and Polarized America.

Brownstein describes the present political climate as one of "hyper-partisanship," whether the issue at hand is the health care or the war in Iraq. "The structure of the debate in Washington now pits the parties against each other in almost a regimented, reflexive opposition," he says. As evidence, he points to the level of party-line voting, which he says is the highest it has been in a century.

"Conflict is part of politics because conflict is part of American life, and has been forever, and will be forever, and usually is a good thing — taken to a point," Brownstein observes. Leaders have a responsibility find some sort of consensus, but our present leaders are failing in that, he says. "They are perfectly comfortable in arguing to stalemate."

On our blog, an open thread: Is the stalemate in Washington hopeless?