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There's a reason or two that politics have gotten more extreme than ever, but people don't want to hear it.
One reason - and again, the people with the power to do something about it don't want to hear it - is that the media are so disconnected from ordinary people. They paint them as backwards, wrong, racist, whatever. Then those people did their heels in.
Most Americans think that while imperfect, their country is the greatest nation in the history of the world. They're proud of their imperfect founders, not because they deny their imperfections but because on the whole, they were a force for good in our country and our world.
Most of us are pretty damn grateful to live in this country, not because we are ignorant or blinded by patriotism, but because we live every day with the benefits of freedom, economic mobility and a (comparatively) limited government that allows us to flourish and live freely.
I notice that my friend @elizabethcrisp (a great reporter you should follow) takes exception to the notion of a media monolith - fair enough. But it's really telling when media have been centralized in two or three cities and vote almost entirely for a single political party.
We see what happens when people in media dissent (see @BariWeiss) in even meager ways. There's hardly any, if not no, room for dissenting opinions in mainstream media anymore. Coupled with the centralization of newsrooms in a few cities, and it's a recipe for groupthink.
And so, at least on the right (on which I can speak with far more authority than the left), the most radical elements are normalized because our more mainstream folks have been unfairly painted as radicals, too. Call everyone a racist and then suddenly no one is one.
Then, there's the aforementioned matter of the academic/media/pop culture/activist assault on the American identity - our history is evil, we're innately evil (even when we aren't), etc., and we're collectively in this state of self-flagellation with no reprieve in sight.
People can't be constantly told they must repent for sins they don't think they're committing. Most people aren't cruel or bigoted, and at some point, they can't take constantly being on the defensive or in a defeated posture for wrongs they don't think they committed.
This is just ONE reason. There are loads of others. But I think a fundamental misunderstanding and a willingness to depict the average American as a mere caricature has put the vast majority of people (no matter their politics) opposite media, academic, pop culture, etc.
