TPMers,

Your thoughts on this topic please: I hang around a few American political sites (this one, free republic, etc), and one thing I am constantly taken aback by is the hyper partisan, and, frankly vicious nature of much american political discussion and debate.

I grew up in New Zealand, and got my politics degree there, and have lived in Australia for the last five years. I`m not trying to get high and mighty here, but there seems to be much more basic respect between political opponents, which is especially apparent during election cycles. Australia in fact just went through one of the more bitter elections in recent memory, and despite this there was a strong display of cordiality between the candidates of each party.

My belief is the USA will face some very significant challenges in the next thirty years, and to address these problems (climate change, increasing poverty / polarity in the US, the rise of China) will require a large amount of consensus and (dare I say it) co-operation between Democrats and Republicans, on a level which simply does not occur right now.

My question is this: what can be done to bring more civility and respect into American political discourse? And anyone who wants to `blame it on the republicans`, well, don`t bother to comment. There`s been plenty of mud slinging (that I`ve seen) on both sides.

BTW This is more a thread to start a discussion than make a particular point, so apologies if the above reads rather vaugely. I would be really interested to hear of any projects about to promote bipartisanship.