There is no doubt that a lot of political campaigning has very little to do with the issues that the people spending money on the campaigning actually care about.
Medina and I, actually, more appropriately, my wife, could sit down at the table and solve a bunch of problems. They would disagree on a lot, but they would agree on more. And they would do it without yelling and screaming. This includes many of the hottest button issues. If people were interested in what they discussed, they would happily produce a transcript, or just invite people to watch. People who paid attention to how they did it and what they came up with would appreciate the well-reasoned and thoughtful approach, as well as their good faith. But most people wouldn't pay attention to it. And members of each team would would scream and yell about how they screwed it all up. They would be graded "F" by interest groups, pilloried on social media and in op-eds, and labeled as traitors to the cause because neither of them got all that they went in seeking.
Not universally--actually, there is a fair amount of that still happening, but less and less, particularly at the federal level. And the desire for--and access to--fame is making it worse, not better.
