Scalise still in critical condition, will need additional operations

[Technocracy Timmy]

While it doesn't change the gravity of what he's done, it would have less dire consequences for the state of political division in this country. If we've reached the point when people actually go out and shoot other people for their political views, we have entered a dire new reality.

Maybe it is the case that in these highly polarized times, a president viewed as polarizing in their own way really agitates and stirs up the "out party," resulting in more violence. We saw that during Obama's tenure, a president who, in combination with a major recession, helped radicalize a lot of conservatives. Now with Trump's election, maybe something similar happens on the left - perhaps even more so. The question then becomes how long Trump serves as POTUS.

Although, I don't think the energy and right/leftwards shift of the parties is entirely due to the past 2 presidents.

The only question I have is, where does it end? I don't want to go full Beet, but if things continue down this path me might actually have normalized political violence like in India or some African country.

Polarization is usually solved through a crisis fueled political realignment. That's not always the case though (see 1860).

[Technocracy Timmy]

While it doesn't change the gravity of what he's done, it would have less dire consequences for the state of political division in this country. If we've reached the point when people actually go out and shoot other people for their political views, we have entered a dire new reality.

Maybe it is the case that in these highly polarized times, a president viewed as polarizing in their own way really agitates and stirs up the "out party," resulting in more violence. We saw that during Obama's tenure, a president who, in combination with a major recession, helped radicalize a lot of conservatives. Now with Trump's election, maybe something similar happens on the left - perhaps even more so. The question then becomes how long Trump serves as POTUS.

Although, I don't think the energy and right/leftwards shift of the parties is entirely due to the past 2 presidents.

The only question I have is, where does it end? I don't want to go full Beet, but if things continue down this path me might actually have normalized political violence like in India or some African country.

Polarization is usually solved through a crisis fueled political realignment. That's not always the case though (see 1860).

That period took all the way until 1894 or 1896 to solve. The country which began to be very polarized in the late 1850s didnt depolarize till the 1894 and 1896 elections.

Uh

I was responding to Timmy's point that realignments depolarize the country , thats not true cause 1860 was a realigning election and the country didnt depolarize for another 35 years.

See my second sentence. I said that it doesn't always have that effect and cited 1860 as an example

1800, 1932, and 1980 all lead to a period of depolarization.