Wes Mantooth

What I meant by fear of the other side is that trying to create that fear is a big part of both parties strategy to keep people voting along the party line and continuing to dismiss the other side regardless of how good or bad the candidate or idea really is. If you create an image in peoples minds that every conservative candidate is a right wing nut job or that every liberal candidate is a socialist in sheeps clothing you're effectively fear mongering people into not exploring their political options by creating a false impression of every candidate from president on down to park supervisor.

We've created a system where people aren't really looking at the issues anymore, just the letter next to the name and assuming its the best fit for them. This fear mongering and hyperbole has caused our two party system to thrive, people to vote against clearly superior/competent candidates and at times against their own best interests amongst other things. If we'd stop looking at politics as a team sport and instead encouraged people to focus on the issues regardless of who or where they come from we'd go a long way in repairing our political system.

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