Polarization clouds issues

The politics of polarization in this country has gotten completely out of hand.

Both parties are responsible. Whichever one is out of power tries to demonize the other and do the best they can to make the other party look bad. Forget the job we elected them to do -- solve the nation's problems. It's clearly all about power.

Right now it's the Republicans that are playing the polarization game. Their version has gotten so absurd that they're rapidly becoming known as the Party of No. Driven by the right wing, the GOP leadership no longer seems to represent the mainstream, and far more reasonable, members of their own party.

Most Republican voters we know actually bother to think about things, not just suffer from knee-jerk reactions and the mouthing of worn-out cliches. But the GOP leadership seems to suffer from what has been called Obama Derangement Syndrome. If he's fir it, they're agin' it. No matter what.

They're already lining up to oppose Obama's next Supreme Court nominee -- even though that nominee hasn't been named! The protest signs they're printing up have "We oppose _ (fill in the blank)." That's ridiculous. Granted, Obama isn't likely to appoint a staunch conservative. But at least wait until you see who the man (or woman) is before you start vilifying them.

The most absurd case of knee-jerk reaction to anything put forward by the president and his party (which has its own dysfunctional problems), is the opposition to the nuclear arms treaty signed between the United States and Russia. It's the largest single reduction in nuclear arms in history. But the president is being ripped for it by the GOP leadership.

Forget the fact that we'll be getting rid of old systems while still keeping all the shiny, newer toys in the box. Forget the fact we'll still have enough weapons to destroy any nation on the planet several times over. Forget the fact this is a good idea and something every president, of both parties, has worked on as a priority over the years. Obama's fir it, so they're agin' it. This is knee-jerk to the point of absurdity.

Obama's trying to cut the threat of nuclear weapons, not just by responsible nations but by rogue states and terrorists. We see this as a very good idea.

At Obama's nuclear summit this week, the Ukraine announced it will turn over to the U.S. the fissionable materials and weapons it inherited from the old Soviet Union. The Ukraine has never had the infrastructure to properly handle, take care of or secure those weapons. It's always been high on the radar of nuclear weapons experts as a likely source for a warhead to get "misplaced" and wind up in the wrong hands. This is a very positive move toward world safety.

No, if you're going to criticize Obama for this, don't do it on the stupid grounds the GOP leadership has used ("it reduces our strength"). Do it for the legitimate criticism that all these excess warheads, ours or the Ukraine's, have to be disposed of somewhere, and Obama made the stupid decision to close the Yucca Mountain site just as it was ready to be opened. That's not knee-jerk criticism, that's reasoned criticism.

But reasoned criticism seems to have fallen into the black hole of the two-minute sound bite. Reason, logic and compromise seem to have completely disappeared from politics today.

No wonder the average voters, who seem increasingly smarter than the people they elected, are fed up with the clowns in Washington.

Maybe, come this fall, we need our own nuclear option.

-- Kelly Everitt