Is America uniquely polarized?

Gonna take a break from “work issues” for one day and discuss political polarization briefly.

I’ll say this: some have recently called us “The United States of Nervous Wrecks,” and we’ve got research that this is one of the most socially-isolated, lonelytimes in American history. Even if you don’t vote — i.e. more than half of you — it’s hard to argue the 2016 Presidential election wasn’t a microcosm of all this. Each side was screeching at each other, there was hate/fake news everywhere, and ultimately the more-qualified candidate didn’t respond to the reality of the situation and lost to the lesser-qualified candidate. Now pregnancy is a pre-existing condition. Go figure.

This all ties to political polarization.

This stuff happens all over the world — see the French election just yesterday? — but in America, it’s a unique mess. But why?

Reason 1 and 2 on U.S. political polarization

Here’s Jonathan Rodden, a Stanford political science professor, doing some research on geography and politics in the U.S. A summary of that research is then here, including this section:

Rodden says that this battle pitting a set of urban interests against a set of rural interests didn’t happen overnight and isn’t unique to American politics. However, the…