How America Polarized
Polarization has always been with us. What has kicked it into overdrive?
Becca and I grew up in a Midwestern college town. Our friendship was built around small-town life: college football, barbecues by the lake, and so on. If you had asked us about politics, we both would’ve been fairly moderate—and unconcerned—in our replies. It just didn’t matter much, we thought.
Then we went our separate ways. I, to a liberal, urban university; she, to a conservative, rural college. Life got more complicated. Our friendship faded.
And, as you can guess, we polarized.
In the years sense, I’ve become increasingly liberal, and she’s become increasingly conservative. Now, we think, politics really matters.
Our story is typical of the modern American story: one of increasing—and increasingly predictable—polarization.
But what exactly does that mean? In what sense have Americans polarized — and in what sense is the predictability of this polarization new?
That’s a huge question. Here’s the short of it.
Polarization has always been with us. A set of basic psychological and sociological mechanisms explain why human societies have always been characterized by local conformity and global diversity…
