Is U.S. Political System Coming Apart?

By Henry Srebrnik, [Saint John, NB] Telegraph-Journal

Starting with the impeachment of Bill Clinton twenty years ago over the Monica Lewinsky affair, the American political system appears to be unravelling. 

Two years later, two bedrock American political institutions, the Electoral College and the Supreme Court, put George W. Bush in the White House despite evidence that he might actually have been defeated by Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election. 

His de-legitimization by the political left was followed, after 2008, by right-winger “birthers” who claimed Barack Obama wasn’t born in the U.S. and was a “closet” Kenyan.

Since 2001, we have also witnessed the 9/11 attacks, the invasion of Iraq, the rise of the right-wing Tea Party, the global financial crisis of 2008, an ever-accelerating cycle of mass shootings, ever more contentious fights over Supreme Court nominations, and, most recently, the unforeseen election of Donald Trump, who may himself soon be impeached. 

Such events have had the cumulative effect of pushing Democrats and Republicans towards their respective ideological margins. This radicalization has resulted in a dramatic increase in partisan antipathy and polarization. 

As Amy Walter notes in the Cook Political Report of Oct. 23, written before in advance of Tuesday’s midterm election, opinions about the president today basically mirror the vote for the president in 2016. 

“The coalition that brought Trump to the White House (white, non-college, overwhelmingly male), continue to give him high marks. Meanwhile, those that voted against him in 2016 -- women, college-educated white voters and voters of colour -- dislike him as much today as they did back then.” 

 “The postwar consensus,” writes cultural critic and film historian Peter Biskind in his recently published book The Sky is Falling, “foundered on the rocks of globalism, ballooning inequalities of wealth, and cultural alienation.” what was formerly considered the fringe has come out of the shadows. 

Here’s a rather astonishing example: The Obamas have acquired the rights to Michael Lewis’ new book, The Fifth Risk, as part of their new production deal with Netflix to make original TV shows and movies. It is critical of Trump and his administration at its very core. 

Whatever you may think of Trump, this is unprecedented: never has a former president attacked his successor in this way while the latter was in office. When Obama took office in 2009, George W. Bush receded from the public spotlight.

Combined with Obama’s recent direct denunciations of Trump on the campaign trail, along with those of Hillary Clinton, and the talk of a “resistance,” it sometimes feels like they consider themselves a “government-in-exile.”

All gloves are off in the country, with civility and convention gone out the window.

Today, noted New York Times columnist David Brooks in an article published a few says before the election, “Politics is no longer mainly about disagreeing on issues. It’s about being in entirely separate conversations.”

We await the results Tuesday night. But it seems whatever the outcome, America finds itself in deep trouble.