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In response to
"And I don't understand why the polarization has become quite so prominent in the last 10 years or so. Is it the change of demographics that's making "
by
pmb
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I think it's more than 10 years or so. There's a number of factors that likely weighs in.
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1) Globalization. Not only affecting the movement of people towards North America, but also trade and the shift in employment. The gap between a low-skilled and high-skilled worker widened.
2) I think framing so many issue as a "right" has been increased in the last couple of decades, particularly around abortion and same-sex rights, but also on safety and healthcare. When an issue is viewed through that prism, there's far less middle ground to accept in the political debate and the sides are far more strident.
3) Less patronage and overt backscratching/quid pro quo in our government. While nominally "cleaner" the system of gov't we affectionately remember as the "good old days" had plenty of shiftiness to it with straight up patronage, to ear marks, to whatever that helped greased the skids of gov't. Without that system - and the elected officials who did well under said system - the more dogmatic and ideologically zealous.
4) That trend also removed a great deal of the moderators from active political participation. I've written on here before, but the shift from the local party boss being one's banker or business owner to the head of a think tank or the union president pushed a lot of moderates to stay at home instead of fight with the activists.
5) Finally, the rise of the 24-hour (now 8-hour) news cycle. Everything sped up and politics really is a sausage making "you don't want to really know" business. Turned a bunch of disillusioned people right off. Tuned a bunch of the activists in. Turned the volume up to 11.
6) Finally and this time I do mean finally, there has been a trend amongst people with options to migrate and naturally move towards neighbourhoods full of people just like them. It's also been written about a ton, but our peer groups tend to get less and less politically and culturally diverse and it affects our world point of view.
That's just five. There's a few more.
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