Political Divide Deepens Outside Beltway

As I was flying back from the NCAF-ExxonMobil Advisory Council meeting over the weekend, I stopped into the Delta Sky Club Lounge. I sat down amidst a group of people watching Fox News. A story was running on how the Obama Administration had “declared war” with Fox News. It was astounding to watch this group of strangers in an airport lounge engage in a highly engaged debate – some would call it an argument – about the coverage.

A little later, when someone flipped the television to another station that was reporting on Obama’s difficult deliberations about the policies in Afghanistan, two people in the group vocally interpreted his deliberations as a “sign of weakness” that was “dangerous for the country.” While some nodded in agreement, a few others said they appreciated Obama taking extra time to make the best decision on this national security issue and went on to say they wished this extent of deliberation had occurred before the U.S. went into Iraq.

Regardless of whether or not you feel the administration is right or wrong in its characterization of Fox News or in its policies on Afghanistan, the disturbing thing to me is the divisiveness across the country that these discussions embody. Everywhere I go, I am encountering a political split like I have never before seen.

I have done some serious reading about the history of the House, Senate and its members stretching back more than 200 years. The rhetoric now is much tamer than at many other times throughout our history. If you doubt this, read A Senate Journal, Pulitzer Prize Award Winner Allen Drury’s diary of his days as a United Press International correspondent covering the Senate during World War II. The rhetoric and personal attacks on members at that time was unbelievable.

While I am not too worried about the partisanship and rhetoric within the institution of Congress, I am worried about how much deeper and more open the political divide is among people outside the Beltway. This is something new that I believe we can attribute to the 24-hour-spin-cycle of talk radio and cable television. The newspaper coverage of the 1940s simply cannot compare.

Maybe next time I’ll take the train.