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Insightful. I also think the 2-party system in the us tends to polarize all discussion. Everything has to fit on the same left/right scale, and there is no midd

• soundwave106 10y ago
  It hasn't always been the case, though. During a period from roughly 1930 to late 1970s, political polarization in this country was rather modest. (http://www.voteview.com/pdf/The_Polarization_of_Modern_US_Politics.pdf http://www.voteview.com/pdf/The_Polarization_of_Modern_US_Po...) Only recently has political polarization approached the levels last seen in the late 19th century. And even with current heavy polarization, it's not completely binary. I can easily see, say, four party possibilities out of our current two.
  • dragonwriter 10y ago
    > It hasn't always been the case, though. During a period from roughly 1930 to late 1970s, political polarization in this country was rather modest. That's because the country was undergoing a partisan realignment (well, at least two that overlapped, one economic tied to the new deal coalition and one racial and tied to civil rights), where the emerging new axes of political differentiation did not align well with the divide between the major parties (but where the two were progressively moving into alignment.)