Political conflict would have been at an all-time high today even if there were different presidential candidates from the initial pool of alternatives. Republicans and Democrats at both the leadership level and their electoral bases differ ideologically more than ever seen in American politics across an enormous range of political issues. This was already associated with partisan disagreement over “facts” and “truth,” well before the 2016 presidential campaign. This talk will review the available—and striking— data that show this, and address directly the question: How did we get here? And much more speculatively: Is there any way out?
