"It's YOU against THEM"

I mourn for the republic because I think that we are fracturing ourselves with greed and fear. It is greed and fear that some (a lot) of politcos exploit to win support for their campaigns. But this greed and fear, however, is a hungry monster, a politician must keep feeding it, otherwise it will turn and he (or she) will himself (or herself) on your keister looking for a job. This leads to an increasing inability of any group to compromise and work with opponents for a solution. It infects city councils, it infects boards of supervisors, it infects the state assembly, it infects the halls of Congress. Today's Email of the Day over at Andrew Sullivan's blog sums up one of the primary reasons why I think we are in danger of disintegrating (emphasis mine):

Maybe I wasn't paying enough attention before, but Al Gore's candidacy in 2000 is really what turned me away (possibly forever) from the Democratic Party. It wasn't just that I found myself disagreeing with him on issues (I did), but it was primarily the rhetoric. It started with his statements on Social Security. He campaigned on fear and appealed to that basest of human instincts - selfishness. The "what's in it for me" instinct. As I listened more carefully, I discovered that on virtually every issue, Al Gore's theme was centered around getting people to think that someone else was profiting and they were losing out. Taxes: the rich are getting richer AT YOUR EXPENSE. Social Security: "YOU will end up in the poorhouse; "THEY" will be taking something away from you." (Never mind that your children will not even have Social Security if we continue on this path - don't look to the future; worry about yourself first.) On and on. Are YOU better off than you were four years ago? (Oh, how I despise that question!) It's all about "THEY" versus "YOU". It's never "WE are facing this issue, and here's what I think is the best solution for US."

The "angry" Democrat wasn't created when Bush was elected. He was already angry because Al Gore told him he should be - because someone else was getting something he wasn't.