Why We're Polarized

When Americans voted Donald Trump into the White House in 2016, both supporters and opponents hailed his election as an unprecedented event. Trump’s base was energized by the outspoken businessman who seemed to be bringing a radical new attitude to Washington DC. Across the media landscape, the shock of the election set off a wave of soul-searching as his defectors forcefully denounced him as entirely unfit for office.

But Vox cofounder Ezra Klein claims that the 2016 election wasn’t surprising at all. In fact, Trump’s electoral victory followed the exact same template as previous elections, despite his objectively atypical candidacy. Trump captured a nearly identical percentage of voter demographics as previous Republican candidates. These fixed percentages reflect the entrenched political polarization of America, a rigid ideological divide that is behind our increasingly dysfunctional government.

Packed with bipartisan history, rigorous analysis, and the sharp insights of a veteran political journalist, One Nation Under Politics exposes how different parts of our current system are driving political identity deeper into our lives and institutions. Klein makes sense of an era in American politics that seems senseless by looking at how politics have changed over the past half-century when two political parties began sorting into ideologically and demographically distinct coalitions. This book delves into the relationships between our parties, our ideologies, our identities, our demography, and our minds.