The debate over the fiscal year 2000 appropriations bills was no more ennobling or inspiring of confidence in the seriousness and judgment of our elected representatives. Unrealistically tight discretionary spending caps in the 1997 balanced budget legislation posed serious obstacles for the president and Congress in reaching agreement on the new budget. One might have thought that the very robust economic performance that helped turn budget deficits into surpluses would create some room for constructive maneuvering modest upward adjustments in spending levels in the near term combined with longer-term steps to bolster the fiscal integrity of Social Security. But that would be too much to expect. The poisonous atmosphere in Washington that developed from President Clinton s personal misbehavior and public dissembling, Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr s aggressive investigation, and the House Republicans decision to impeach the president over the opposition of a strong, stable majority of citizens, has become even more noxious in the ensuing months.
Politicians make little effort to hide their contempt for one another.
Members of the majority party in Congress routinely assail the president s character and trustworthiness. The president s national security adviser issues a blanket indictment of the Republican party for its supposed neoisolationism. And the talk news shows fan the partisan fires, trivializing whatever serious substantive differences exist and lending prominence to those talking the loudest and taking the most outrageous positions. But the roots of this distemper among political elites are much more variegated. Most importantly, the parties are more evenly balanced and ideologically polarized than at any time in contemporary history.