Political Polarization Due To Personalities?

Flickr/katja.torres

Watching Republican and Democratic politicians, and their statements in the media, I continue to be amazed by the seemingly never ending polarization between both parties. They appear to be against whatever the other party claims. I have to say the Republicans in Congress clearly are leading in this game by demonizing the President's actions, no matter what he does.  This polarization seems to me not just based on different political philosophies or ideologies, nor just on cultural differences, but very much on the character and personalities of the politicians, and their supporters.

The Economist presented a blog post
Personality and Polarisation confirming that conservatives and liberals do have different personalities:

Romney: Three Strikes You're Out

While the media and political pundits are eagerly anticipating the presidential elections, describing Mitt Romney’s supposed move to the center, and the “excitement” of a tightening race, it’s time to apply some common sense to this “horse race.” Most voters will vote republican or democrat because that’s what they always do, no matter who the candidate is. But let’s take a different view, and first, try to understand what Romney and the Republicans stand for. Then let’s look at their track record, and finally look at the candidate’s character........ 

Cellphoney Technology

Bfishadow/Flickr

How helpful is our daily technology when we really need it? A few days ago I decided to put a password lock on my cell phone, after hearing all the scary stories about what could happen if you lose your phone and unsavory characters find it. This morning I wanted to check my cell phone and punched in my password, but couldn’t unlock it: “password incorrect”, it said.  Even though I hadn’t changed anything since last night when it had worked perfectly fine, I couldn’t open my cellphone just when I needed it.....

Those Revolting Europeans

Paul Krugman, Noble Prize winning economist and New York Times columnist, wrote in his column last Sunday about the outcome of two critical European elections, in  France and Greece. Krugman, who has been all along an opponent of the European strategy of recovery through austerity sees those elections as a clear repudiation of this strategy and offering an opening to solutions of the Euro crisis.  Krugman states:

"What’s wrong with the prescription of spending cuts as the remedy for Europe’s ills? One answer is that the confidence fairy doesn’t exist — that is, claims that slashing government spending would somehow encourage consumers and businesses to spend more have been overwhelmingly refuted by the experience of the past two years. So spending cuts in a depressed economy just make the depression deeper. ........Moreover, there seems to be little if any gain in return for the pain."

He then continues on the alternatives: the first would be the break-up of the euro, which in essence he dismisses as being "too disruptive." The other, more credible, alternative in his view would be much more expansionary policies by the European Central Bank in the richer countries, first of all Germany. Krugman believes that the win by French socialist Hollande as new president will make this latter alternative more likely in the months to come. It's true that with Hollande the German-French axis between conservatives Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy may get looser, but let's see if Krugman will be right that expansionary policies will be the outcome.