Back in the days before so many Americans lived in suburbs, back before there was no interstate highway system, back before the mass media was less concentrated in ownership, homogenized in content and much more local and decentralized in its reach, back before all the advances in communication and technology-back before all of that, and more-the political process in the United States was much more localized, parochial, and driven by political parties and political machines than by candidates and nationwide interest groups.
The question, therefore, is how have of all of the aforementioned factors contributed to the nationwide homogenization and ideological polarization of American politics that we see today?