Frum: though never perfect, parties weren't always quite such punks to each other

Did parties always treat each other like the step-brother each never wanted? Of course they did. In an exercise early in my journalism program, we listened to a taped speech from then-President Harry Truman to Congress, and the similarity of his words to the rhetoric of today was haunting. But as David Frum points out in an interesting sampling of historical anecdotes, they managed to form a quasi-functional relationship despite similar procedural rules.

Now, after a few decades had given us enough prosperity to give everyone what they wanted, we have a system where nothing is out of bounds. The fact about only a quarter of people living in counties that were landslides in the 1976 election whereas half lived in landslides in 2008 struck me as particularly telling. He doesn't have an answer for what, but he's right to say SOMETHING drastic needs to change what is now a completely dysfunctional culture.