The way political cooperation, negotiation and compromise are viewed as acts of unforgivable weakness in the US sets up a climate where functional democracy appears impossible. The US seems destined to lurch from one impulse to another with half the country thinking each is a colossal mistake and an affront to their way of life.

No, I do not mean this as any kind of "both sides" argument. The fact there are only sides to determining how a society governs itself, the winners and the losers, is the point.