> People are polarizing in ways that weren't around only a few years ago. This one gets me the worst. America's political landscape is forever changed. 1. Poli

> People are polarizing in ways that weren't around only a few years ago. This one gets me the worst. America's political landscape is forever changed. 1. Political discourse between sides is so aggressive that morals, the truth, etc, are trumped by 'Who cares? My team is winning.' 2. Congressional cooperation has fallen to levels where the entirety of the government is incapable of making simple, easy decisions, and even when they do, it must help a talking point. 3. This divide has spread outwards into other branches of government in such a way that breaks the entire intent of checks and balances. At this point, the Supreme court is just doing a congressional party's bidding. This seems like 'balance' to other branches but it actually limits the ability for the supreme court to make impartial choices and means that a regime change in congress/ president will fully eliminate checks and balance. The government will answer to a party's bidding rather than the constitution or people. 4. A majority of people in one party no longer trust the electoral system while a majority in the other party see signs that the game is rigged against them (Gerrymandering). This causes a general feeling of 'We lost because of X, not because of us.' But finally, to me, the worst item... 5. Politics in America are now about feeling right and 'winning' rather than promises and goals. This was always in the background and any marketer will tell you this is how human minds work...but this change accelerates the rest. It doesn't matter what policy is passed or how it plays out, as long as 'I feel right.' Politics now realize that success is a 'sick burn' or a 'scary claim about "them"', not actual improvement of the country. Why? One of these is publicity and moves individual donations...it helps get you elected. It fires up your base because it is way easier to sell negative emotions ("I hate them", "They are going to kill america, we have to save it") rather than positive ("Our government is doing good things.") This means you need puppets, people in your party for their party to hate and people in their party for your party to hate. Alas, you get Trump, AOC, McConnell, Pelosi, Gatez. Each party knows this agreement is fantastic, or has learned it at least. Why? Because if, say, the GOP did not have a 'them' it would be impossible to sell.