If there is one thing tearing this Country apart it is the Progressive Caucus and the Freedom Caucus in Congress.
Both are extreme, both do not understand human nature and how humans react to incentives and disincentives, both are shortsighted and ignore or are unaware of unintended consequences, both have limited appreciation for the financial and economic consequences of their ideas.
Where is the common sense middle?
Where are the American people who reject extremes?
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
I’m not sure that the middle does not prevail. Clearly the “extremes”, if you want to call them that, make the most noise and get the media attention, but the outcomes tend towards the middle in general. Much of the government programs or spend is geared towards benefiting the middle such as social security/Medicare, child-related tax credits, and even Medicaid which spends a significant portion on long term care.
Plus much of the discretionary spend is inline with majority view such as defense and infrastructure. Even the divisive issues tend to fall in the middle over time. For instance we will likely land at 12-16 weeks on abortion in many states (which is the majority view) and we will have voter identification rules in many states which many agree with as a solution. So does the fringe really drive the country?
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Let’s hope you are right
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I’m here!
Sent from my iPhone
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You have succinctly summarized much of what is wrong with our political system today. I hope I am right in thinking that those who make up the fringe on both the left and right are in the minority, even though they get the lion’s share of media attention. I have friends to my left and right, and we get along just fine. We don’t define ourselves or each other based on our politics but instead by our shared values and interests.
Our present two parties are led by people who view those of the other party to be the enemy, and rather than work together, each seeks to dominate the other. They are masters of division. I can’t imagine being friends with any of them!
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Closed primaries and increased gerrymandering directly lead to non competitive general elections. This is a primary reason for the increase in increased polarization and more extreme members of each party. But it clearly benefits Republicans more, since most of their current core issues are unpopular with the general public. Which is why the right wing Supreme Court continues to protect the practice of gerrymandering, which is anti-democratic and destroying our country.
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I been wondering for a long time if open primaries would help. Being an independent voter, I get to only vote for the choices that the party machines decide to put on the general ballot. If the party machines does not like one of their own candidates, the party doesn’t support them and I’ll never get a chance to vote for them. I would like to see the top three primary finishers, regardless of party, be put on the November ballot. I think it would change the game in fund raising and make the party machines work harder.
I know some cities and states are trying this but I do not believe that works that well. My other fear is that we would have multiple parties getting elected like in Europe and what seems like every few months a new election is called. But is that a bad thing because nothing happens here unless it is a super majority anyway?
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The 2 caucuses together have about half the members of the house so I assume the middle is the rest of the membership. The troublesome aspect of the 2 is the extreme radicalism of the most leftist freedom members and it invites a strong reaction from the freedom caucus side. This is what is playing out across the country so I don’t blame the caucuses for the extreme views out in the general population, they are just the more visible sides of the countrywide division.
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I’m here with most of the people my age (over 60) wondering the same thing.
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I really don’t see how this is going to be fixed! Probably not well.
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