Do Many Political Reporters Not Have Brains? by Barry Yourgrau So Ron Brownstein, the longtime (now former) LA Times political beat reporter, has a new book out about our "polarized" American political scene: The Second Civil War: How Extreme Partisanship Has Paralyzed Washington and Polarized America . Ours is the age of "hyperpartisanship"--left as well as right, as Brownstein sees it, according to the reviews (Sunday and today) in the NY Times. Ain't it awful? I don't mean to knee-jerk here, but what is so brain-numbingly tedious --so thrashing-about-bug-eyed-with-fury demoralizing--is the fatuousness of Brownstein's analysis. It is an analysis which I'm sure is widely regarded as "thoughtful." Which shows just how not up to the job our Big Media press by and large is. Brownstein seems incapable of registering the reality of American politics: That the "partisanship" and "principles" of the right are turning this coun...