Things are in a state of perpetual turmoil fueled by ridiculous, blatant, over-the-top partisanship.
It is, 100%, the root cause of what's dividing our country and to me is the most troubling thing.
I really believe at the current pace, there will be some type of civil skirmish. Not an all-out civil war, but there will be heavy duty rioting where the military will need to take action.
That's how divided this country is.
I follow politics because politics affect my life in just about every aspect. However, my strength is not American political history, but I'll go out on a limb and say partisanship has been an unfortunate side effect of our process, and has been for generations. It is only until recently that the partisanship has evolved into a sort of juvenile-like refusal to even work together, at all, on anything. Thus, nothing gets done in DC.
I have concluded that the root cause - the fuel that continuously and incessantly fuels the fire - is one thing. And this one thing applies in ALL instances, no matter which party is in control. The cause?
THE STATE
The State is: Elected officials at all levels of government, + Unelected bureaucrats who develop & implement policy that conveniently skips the legislative process, + Lobbyists whose sole purpose is to corrupt govt officials in order to obtain what they want, + Judicial officials who legislate from the bench rather than apply/implement the law as it is written.
My solutions:
* Term limits. For all government. Even the SC.
* Get lobbyists OUT. No more corporate cronyism. No more pay-for-play. Root out the #1 cause of corruption.
* De-regulate ALL government oversight functions to their bare-minimum. Eliminate multi-layers of government bureaucracy.
* Which leads to: Simplify the tax code. Reward productivity, rather than punish it.
* Let loose Free market capitalism... the only economic plan that has ever pulled countries/civilizations out of poverty on grand levels.
When we do this, we do an amazing thing.... we NEUTER the STATE. We return "Power" to the "People" without it's cliche'd inferences. We really return power to its rightful owner(s).
Both the Left and the Right use the State as their enforcement arm. And here is where the division in this country has gone from a gap to a large chasm. With an all-powerful State behind those in power, the citizenry is left helpless. Our rights mean nothing. Threats are carried out under the banner of "law".
If a left-wing liberal/progressive/socialist espouses for (fill in whatever left-wing cause here, ex: pro-choice, gay rights, complete separation of church & state, etc.), that demand dies off a whimpering death without the power of the State behind it to enforce. Same goes for right-wing causes. No enforcement arm behind your demands? You could march/demand/protest all you want; if your newly-enacted demand for special rights infringe upon mine, it ain't happening. The Libertarian code of the "Non-Aggression Principle" covers this very well.
Without the mega-power of the State as it exists now, I truly believe that this country can begin to mend. The extremism of the left/right begins to fade. Extremist numbers are few (though their voices seem the loudest... you ever notice?)... this without the State to be used as their Rottweiller. We begin to see common-sense return to commonplace. Us conservatives/libertarians can promote family, community, faith without fear of being labeled. You left-leaning types can espouse your causes, and as long as your demands/rights don't infringe upon mine, who am I do deny you? After all, I won't have the power of an all-powerful State behind me to force you.