Wonderful article! "Democracy depends on the consent of the losers. For most of the 20th century, parties & candidates have competed, but understanding that electoral defeats are neither permanent nor intolerable. The losers could move on to fight in the next election. Ideas and policies would be contested, but defeat was not generally equated with political annihilation. Trump’s apocalyptic rhetoric matches the tenor of the times. The body politic is more fractious; as partisans have drifted apart geographically & ideologically, they’ve become more hostile toward each other. Over 25 years, both red & blue areas have become more deeply hued, with Dems clustering in cities & suburbs & GOP filling in rural areas & exurbs. In Congress, the 2 caucuses once overlapped ideologically," but in this new era of information technology, "the dividing aisle has turned into a chasm." Read...
At www.theatlantic.com
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