Ignoring Partisanship’s Impacts

If polarization intensifies while governing and problem-solving are given less and less consideration each day, What Happens Then?

If each side continues to devote all of its collective energies and efforts to putting up wins in the partisanship column regardless of ultimate cost, What Happens Then?

This doesn’t refer only to the question of what happens if the partisan battles intensify. (You mean there’s the possibility of matters being even worse than they are now?!) That’s a more-than-occasional topic of conversation in the media, in the halls of government, and in everyday conversations. None of the possibilities even hint at anything we would consider rewarding.

At the moment, there aren’t any mutually beneficial answers, of course. Contemplating the range of possible outcomes or advisable strategies and their impacts (e.g., from a broad national collapse to the lowly “where’s the fun in empathy?” approach) overwhelms most us — quickly. So those discussions usually veer off in a different direction before the sobering possibilities are given too much attention or elaboration.

In the end, how the partisan fires were stoked won’t matter much. They’ll accomplish one important “objective” if nothing else: accomplishing nothing for all but the few. Is that acceptable to any of us not among the elite?

Some might observe that this seems very similar to what’s happening right now. They would not be wrong.