Hi ToKers,

My take on this is that the root cause lies in the U.S. two-party system.

For most of my life, groups 2 - 6 could find a voice in the two-party system, (though, it would seem, group 4 wouldn't offer their voice by definition). Groups 1 and 7 were ignored and marginalized.

And when you're ignored and marginalized long enough, you get angry and resentful.

And then you lash out.

Which is pretty much what happened when economic circumstances were conducive to this sort of polarization, (i.e., the 2008 crash).

Group 7 has pretty much taken over the Republican Party at this point.

Group 1 is well on its way to doing the same to the Democratic Party, but group 2 is still holding them at bay. But for how long? When the older group 2 dies off and all that's left is the younger group 1?

In short, this whole polarization is a creature of our own institutional making.

We need proportional representation (like every other democracy in the world) so that extreme voices can have their say, but without going from one extreme of having no voice at all, to the other extreme of dominating the whole system.

~ Jason