We Have Met The Enemy...

And he IS us.

When talking politics with neighbors, I find that their number one complaint is that "Washington doesn't get anything done...they just fight with other and can't agree to anything."

Extreme or hyper- partisanship is what this is labeled.

I am reminded of the saying, "you get the government that you deserve." We live in a representative democratic republic, and what we don't want to face is that the divisions among our elected officials represent us quite nicely.

Those divides come into clear focus in the new book by Charles Murray called "Coming Apart: The State Of White America 1960-2010."

In a column summarizing the book, Murray uses statistics to contend that, despite income disparities, Americans had formerly shared common cultural values.

But that's not the current case. At one point in American history, the rich worked its way up from the middle class and understood the values of working hard, getting a good education, and taking advantage of opportunities.

The nation is now seeing a class of rich and powerful families who have had money and power for multiple generations and have lost this ethic.

Meanwhile, the working class is walking away from the institutions and values that unite that group: marriage, religion, and education.

Each group looks contemptuously and without understanding at the lives of the other group.

Then we elect people to speak for us. They are doing so successfully.