Us and Them...are we getting more polarized as a country?

[mythology]

6. Politically speaking, yes

https://news.usc.edu/110124/political-polarization-at-its-worst-since-the-civil-war-2/

I don't believe it will end up resulting in violence as the Republican coalition, specifically around Trump is more fragile than I think is evident. I think some of it is a push back from how successful we've been on social issues. LGBT rights, women's rights, minority rights, these are all things we've made significant and measurable progress on. Obviously not as far as we need to, but less than 15 years ago Republicans were putting anti-same sex marriage bans on the ballot to drum up support. And today 64% of Americans support it. But this progress does create a backlash, particularly because of how we view politics as sort of a war.

I think another reason the Republican coalition is weaker than it appears is that they can't fool people forever on their claims of bringing back jobs, as the jobs they are talking about largely went away due to automation not outsourcing to other countries. American manufacturing is higher than ever. But there are fewer jobs because more is done by machines. Republicans don't have a solution for that, no matter what Trump says. I believe Democrats do because we value education, we talk about retraining and supporting that. Yes Republicans can win in the short term, but long term when they can't produce, they will get voted out.

And finally I think the courts will continue to rule against gerrymandering. Republicans do much better in the House than they should because of gerrymandering. But with courts ruling against it, I don't see that edge lasting in the long term.

I also don't think it will result in violence because we've evolved. Violence isn't an effective political action when we have elections. There is some risk as some people on both sides continue to talk about unsubstantiated claims of either in person voter fraud or actual vote hacking, but I don't see how those claims can continue to be unsupported by evidence and maintain strength over the long term.