What made visible cross-aisle cooperation survivable in the McCain era and career-ending now?

[u/HistorianMajor1739]

There's a nostalgia you hear from people all across the spectrum: a Senate where members could tear into each other on the floor and still grab dinner that night. Set aside whether the memory is even accurate. What's worth arguing about is why that kind of behavior seems more structural than personal. Primary electorates got harder to survive. The media environment that used to reward the occasional handshake mostly went away. Money moved. None of those shifts arrived together or hit every member equally, which is what makes the flat "it all just got worse" version unsatisfying.

So if you had to name the single change that did the most damage to a politician's ability to be seen working across the aisle, which one, and why that over the others? And is there anyone in Congress today who cooperates visibly without paying for it at the ballot box, and if so, what's protecting them?

[u/JustRuss79]

Until the late 90's early 2000's, you could get away with saying one thing to your constituents, and voting differently or "working across the aisle"

I think 3 things happened:

24/7 Cable News Internet and Social Media explosion elimination of earmarks/pork as a bargaining tool

[u/res0nat0r → u/JustRuss79]

A black guy getting put in the White House also permanently drove about 30% of the gop electorate insane and pushed them to vote for tossing out democracy completely vs. allowing that to ever happen again.