Unfortunately a lot of political discourse, or lack thereof, has been packaged as "mic drops". Especially now that things are so contentious politics is a lot more about hyping up your own side than reaching an understanding with people who disagree with your stances.
We're seeing collisions of echo chambers, as you may remember I compared it to the Tower of Babel some time ago, and I think the comparison is apt, conservative and liberal has become so insular that they adopt their own language. I think when you interact with a person from the "opposing side" it's real easy to fall back to talking points, and once one does the other will almost immediately follow.
Boy this is true. It's amazing how much damage has been wrought by political pundits. It started with Rush Limbaugh but now we have dozens on both sides of the aisle - Keith Olbermann, Bill O'Riley, Sean Hannity, Bill Maher, Tucker Carlson, Jon Stuart, Tomi Lahren. All of these people either brand conservatives as ignorant racists or liberals as naive, lazy people who want a nanny state. What's really distressing is that people like Pelosi and McConnell lead their respective parties but buy into the pundit's bullshit. They literally hate their political opponents.
The truth is, the differences between the parties do not at all justify the hostility present. Essentially, you're talking about how the government is going to interfere with our lives. Not even the degree. Conservatives want to interfere with your sex life and what drugs you can use. Liberals want to keep corporations weak and government assistance strong.
These are issues about which intelligent people can - and do - disagree. Honestly, only a moron doesn't recognize some degree of government assistance is needed, some degree of regulation is necessary, and taxes are needed - it's just how much. However, we never talk about policy anymore. It's all about which team is winning and which one is in power. Dems very reluctantly worked with Bush. Reps absolutely refused to work with Obama. Dems are lining up to fight Trump tooth and nail. It's all about villainizing the other team.
They could have fixed or at least patched Obamacare had the Reps wanted to. They didn't. They wanted it to fail and were willing to screw over the American people figuring they would blame the Dems. It worked but damn if that isn't cynical as hell.
Every slip up or problem is pounced on to try to get political advantage.
I pray this last election is the last where the parties pick totally unacceptable candidates to the other party. The majority of Americans, honestly, would have preferred other people to vote for. Had Romney or Rubio run they would have won in a laugher because people hated Clinton. Sanders would have obliterated Trump because there was just no dirt on him. He was a populist without the hubris.
We are now literally in the worst spot I have ever seen in 45 years on the planet where literally 1/4 the people believe the sitting president is guilty of treason and would love to see a bullet put in his head. Meanwhile the other 1/4 think the sitting President is a saint and no matter how obvious a lie he tells, they are willing to slurp it up as fact. Then you have 1/2 the people wondering what the hell has become of their country. They wanted change, but what the hell is going on???
It's pretty dispiriting.