ΩOn the Political Divide and Our Deeply Polarized Nation

I was having dinner with some coworkers last night, one of whom is from Germany. We were explaining (as best we could) the state of the States to him. At one point in the conversation, he asked, "Has it always been this way?" referring to the deep polarization that we perceive in the US.

The answer that I gave and others elaborated on surprised even me: the root cause isn't that the polarization is new, but rather that the polarization has become public.

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