How transportation became the latest victim of America’s culture wars

[cpzilliacus]

Washington Post op-ed: How transportation became the latest victim of America's culture wars

In the past few years, the bitterly polarized "culture wars"  have managed to blow apart the traditionally dull and parochial issue of infrastructure policy. As counterintuitive as this reality may be, it explains why Congress cannot agree on how to reauthorize – let alone modernize – federal surface transportation legislation, a.k.a. the highway bill.

How did this happen?

Since the 1990s, there has been a growing political divide between the cultural left and right, with one side favoring monocultural individualism, free markets and devolution to state and local government, and the other favoring multicultural communitarianism, government intervention and a strong federal hand. Issues that are intuitively cultural, such as abortion, guns and immigration, have long been front and center whenever these two worldviews collide. But now, in federal infrastructure policy, we are seeing what happens when self-segregated communities of common interest clash over how to manage our physical spaces.

[freebrickproductions]

I have a feeling that this thread's going to get very political very fast.

Anyways, I personally feel that the main reason why we don't get along politically anymore is because we now no longer have a "common enemy" (communism) to "fight against", and it's only going to hurt more and more parts of America unless we bring back major bipartisanship. Our media isn't helping our situation either, IMO.

[Scott5114]

Our media isn't helping our situation either, IMO.

It definitely isn't. There's a market for media outlets that cater toward one end of the spectrum or another, allowing one to surround themselves with ideas they already agree with. The remaining general-purpose outlets, afraid of being charged with bias or losing the possibility of future interviews, won't push back when someone says something ludicrous in an interview or press for details when a shallow response is offered. The result is a difficult environment for anyone who truly wants to know what is going on.

[triplemultiplex]

The news is not about getting information out anymore, it's about fomenting controversy to get ratings.

Proposed transportation project? Yawn; what else is on?
Angry people yelling about proposed transportation project?  Ooh, what's this?  I need to pick a side and doggedly defend it against all who threaten my side!

Every project then becomes both a wasteful boondoggle and the greatest asset that should've been built 10 years ago.

[AlexandriaVA]

Anyways, I personally feel that the main reason why we don't get along politically anymore is because we now no longer have a "common enemy" (communism) to "fight against", and it's only going to hurt more and more parts of America unless we bring back major bipartisanship.

Whether it comes under the label of communism or terrorism, there will always be ready-made boogeymen used to justify defense budgets. However, the amount of Americans who have died due to terrorism or communism are extraordinarily small.

[empirestate]

Our media isn't helping our situation either, IMO.

It definitely isn't. There's a market for media outlets that cater toward one end of the spectrum or another, allowing one to surround themselves with ideas they already agree with. The remaining general-purpose outlets, afraid of being charged with bias or losing the possibility of future interviews, won't push back when someone says something ludicrous in an interview or press for details when a shallow response is offered. The result is a difficult environment for anyone who truly wants to know what is going on.

That, plus the news media have now embraced their role as content generators primarily, a source of entertainment over information. Despite the fact that news outlets have done this quite openly, a portion of their audience still gets frustrated when, seeking impartiality and facts, they instead find only buzz and hype. And of course, the more biased a network's point of view is, the less candid they are about admitting to their role as creators of news rather than as reporters of it.

[nexus73]

Here is an overarching article on infrastructure from Next Big Future that will give everyone plenty to chew on:

http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/11/china-and-usa-will-test-how-much-big.html

Rick