The impact of extreme partisanship on political progress and lawmaking in the United States

1. Partisanship & Elections
The impact of extreme partisanship in the United States

2. The nature of cycles
Various cycles normally occur in nature:
► Time and calendar
► Planetary cycles
♦ Astronomical
♦ Climate and weather
♦ Geologic
► Organic
♦ Agricultural
♦ Biological and medical
► Physics
♦ Electromagnetic
♦ Sound
Ciencías Socíales
cy  cle /’sīk(ə)|/ (noun) - a series of events that are regularly repeated in the same order.

3. Not all cycles are positive
A destructive cycle is a repetitive behavior or mode of responding that is sometimes acted out
unconsciously and has a damaging impact on ourselves or others.
What are some examples of destructive
cycles?
► Psychological
♦ Disempowerment
♦ Disrespect
♦ Disconnection
♦ Passive Aggressive Conflict
► Economic
♦ Creative Destruction
♦ Job Creation and Job Destruction
♦ Recession / Inflation
Stage 1:
Self-Concept & Irrational
Beliefs
Stage 2:
The Stressful Incident
Stage 3:
The Passive Aggresive
Person's Feelings
Stage 4:
The Passive Aggresive
Perons's Behavior
Stage 5:
The Reaction of Others
Passive Aggressive Conflict Cycle

4. Partisanship is one of those cycles
It starts as a spectrum…
But turns into a cycle.
par  ti  san  ship /’pärdəzənˌSHip/ (noun) – prejudice in favor of a particular cause; bias

5. Partisanship spectrum, redux
The spectrum of partisanship is not a flat object.
► Amount of influence (size of the circles)
► Overlap between groups (areas of conversation)
► Where each elected official/candidate stands against the x-axis (individual squares)
What’s missing? Individual officials each have personal “spheres” of influence as well.

6. The tug of partisanship
If each individual official or candidate has a “sphere” of influence, what drives it?
► The size of their power base (their citizen supporters)
► Their alignment with one another
This creates “tugs” against the centrist areas which are
the areas of overlap, the areas of conversation.
It shifts people further away from the middle. It stops the conversation.

7. The effects of a lack of conversation
No conversation No collaboration
No lawmaking No governing

8. The end result
If you are not having a conversation…
If you are not collaborating…
If you are not making laws…
You are not collaborating.
You are not making laws.
You are not governing.
If no one is governing, then we do not have a government!
Nobody wins. Everybody loses.

9. THE (BITTER) END.
Really? No.

10. Start a conversation today.