There is no better way to show this point than to look at Germany, which has highly reasonable political dialogue and at least in the center German politics is not so ideological. And there is indeed a center! Furthermore, politicians address their voters like adults and offer reasonable reasons for the policies they are proposing.
But in terms of discovery and resolution there is a significant downside:
Here is the full piece by Anna Sauerbrey. For all its reasonableness, German politics has been a major failure point over the last twenty (?) years. The country has a mediocre infrastructure, mediocre primary education system, it is far behind the curve on tech, it is unwilling to pay to defend itself and meet NATO standards, its foreign policy is partly captured by Russia, it is moving away from nuclear power, it responded poorly to the recent floods, it was slow to line up vaccines and relied on awful EU procurement policies, among numerous other failings. It has enough wealth and accumulated cultural and social capital to withstand these failings, but it has consistently underperformed for some while now. Matters rarely get settled in an innovative direction and they are masters of complacency and can-kicking. But at least the major parties do not criticize each other too much.
I would in fact much prefer the policy landscape of the United States, where the two parties are hardly afraid to attack each other, often in the most ridiculous of terms. Just keep this comparison in mind the next time you despair over the course — and aesthetics — of U.S. politics.
