Paul Krugman, arguing that the deep divide in American politics is largely a function of the GOP's lurch to the right and the conservative rejection of the idea that government can and should provide a social safety net:
This deep divide in American political morality — for that’s what it amounts to — is a relatively recent development. Commentators who pine for the days of civility and bipartisanship are, whether they realize it or not, pining for the days when the Republican Party accepted the legitimacy of the welfare state, and was even willing to contemplate expanding it. As many analysts have noted, the Obama health reform — whose passage was met with vandalism and death threats against members of Congress — was modeled on Republican plans from the 1990s.
To give you a sense of just how far to the right the Republican Party has marched, try imagining a top Republican today saying these words about Social Security and FDR:
So, today we see an issue that once divided and frightened so many people now uniting us. Our elderly need no longer fear that the checks they depend on will be stopped or reduced. ...
These amendments reaffirm the commitment of our government to the performance and stability of social security. It was nearly 50 years ago when, under the leadership of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the American people reached a great turning point, setting up the social security system. F. D. R. spoke then of an era of startling industrial changes that tended more and more to make life insecure. It was his belief that the system can furnish only a base upon which each one of our citizens may build his individual security through his own individual efforts. Today we reaffirm Franklin Roosevelt's commitment that social security must always provide a secure and stable base so that older Americans may live in dignity.
Pretty hard to imagine John Boehner or Mitch McConnell daring to praise FDR, right? But if they delivered those words today, they'd simply be quoting Ronald Reagan, who spoke them in April of 1983, standing beside House Speaker Tip O'Neill after reaching a bipartisan agreement to preserve social security -- an agreement which continues to work to this day.
The point here isn't that Reagan was somehow a liberal -- obviously, he wasn't just a Republican, he was a conservative Republican. But even though Reagan supported a less generous version of the safety net than did Democrats, he nonetheless accepted the basic proposition that a government program could protect senior citizens from living in poverty. That's not a proposition that today's conservative Republicans are willing to accept.