In this morning's APR by the ultra-esteemable, and in my case, ultra-esteemed Dr. Greg Dworkin, this quote from a 538 piece by Lee Drutman:
"Most likely, Senate and House Republicans will eventually find a way to defend Trump’s actions, as they have done before (remember the impeachment trial?). Trump may not be perfect, they may say, but the Democrats are much worse. This is the prevailing rationalization of our zero-sum politics."
I was livid when I read it the first time. I put it to one side, went about my business for a few hours. Then I read it again. The shock had worn off. So now I was both livid and furious.
I put is aside again for a few hours. And I came back to it again. I am still livid, angry and disgusted by such nonsense.
Drutman, 538, and a lot of the media are clearly still high on bothsiderism.
Sorry, Lee.
You are terrible at your job. Your job is to gather and assess facts. Or maybe you are good at your job and false equivalency bolsters the bottom line. Either way, you have failed the society you live in.
Neither elected Democrats nor the party base believe in, nor execute "zero sum politics" or "zero sum outcomes".
That's the Republicans doing that. That's media and 'you' doing that... what are you, by the way? A journamalist? Anyway, people like you who are giving the "zero sum" crap legitimacy.
Shame on you. Shame.
The idea that Biden, Obama, the Clintons, Sanders, Warren, Kerry, Harris, Gore or pretty much any Democrat on the ticket or even potentially on the ticket going back to the 60's believed or implemented a form of "zero sum politics" is clearly absurd.
What's more not even McConnell, Kemp or Graham really believe in "Zero sum politics". For them it is a tool, an instrument.
That is Trump's politics, apparently it is your view of politics. You re welcome to it.
"Our politics", as democrats and Democrats, as progressives who believe in progress, as people who believe that problems should be solved instead of leveraged for political gain, well "Our politics" is about lifting all boats - or at least as many boats as possible, not robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Your journamalism is hopefully about your career.
Again: Shame on you. Shame.