Thanks you, David, for the interesting and sobering take on American political polarization. I cannot escape the conclusion that "polarization" is just a euphemism for the racial enmity that has always underscored American politics. The South did not, for example, turn toward the GOP out of a concern for big government or economic issues, but in response to race-baiting.

Michelle Alexander has tracked the re-creation of a racial hierarchy in America so very thoroughly in her The New Jim Crow. The first racial hierarchy took a civil war to dismantle. The second, Jim Crow, saw American cities burn and politicians assassinated. When I see the racism of Charlottesville this weekend, I fear the destruction to come when mass incarceration is torn down.

We have yet to come to terms with our original American sin of racism.

@Ruchira, your statement is probably wrong or very difficult to prove.  Can you prove your hypothesis?