"I would argue that together these changes add up to a difference of degree that is a difference in kind."


That's the key point of the article. There's always been partisanship, ugly tactics, scandals, and so on, but in recent years those things have become so omnipresent that they are actually threatening the functioning of the whole political system. The past presidential campaign illustrates that rather well, I think: it had already begun for all extents and purposes when the mid-terms happened, then kept going for two years straight, and in certain circles it still seems to be going on, with people who still haven't accepted Obama as their new president. The Palin case was "du jamais vu" as they say in France: less than qualified VP candidates have been chosen before (Quayle comes to mind...), but it seems to me that decision to select her wouldn't have been taken in a calmer and more moderate political environment. The reactions and scandals she got caught up in literally immediately were certainly without precedent.



The soundbite culture has a lot to do with it, yes. What you say - and how you say it - has become so much more important than what you do. Sarah Palin produces a wilfully wrong and slanderous soundbite, and thousands of Americans go around the bend. Nancy Pelosi scores a cheap political point by referring to a few of said unhinged individuals who waved swastikas, and suddenly "Pelosi called the protesters Nazis". On the other end, to resort to one of my pet topics, there's the cynical reaction of many Democratic (and some Republicans as well) politicians a few years ago in the Dubai Ports World scandal, when they knew very well that it was a non-issue and there was no security risk, yet they threw a massive fit about it in an effort to look tough on security and score with the voters. McCain was one of the few to be honest about it and defend the president.
It's getting insane, and increasingly harder to practice serious politics in such an atmosphere.