I skimmed this, and there's some good and interesting data and analysis here. The one aspect that seems to be missing, by its own admission, is how this fits in with the rest of the world. This is looking at the USA in a vacuum, which is not without merit, but countries no longer exist in a vacuum, especially the USA.
As mentioned in one of the last "Fun and Procrastinatey" footnotes:
> The U.S. Left has moved enough that it now matches Europe’s leftness. The U.S. right remains further right of most of the European Right.
Viewed globally, according to this link, the US Democratic Party only crossed to the Left of the median party in the past 5 years. There are very few parties in the world as far Right as the US Republican Party.
This article sounds like it's trying very hard to stay neutral and simply point out the increased polarization. Left and Right are Blue and Red, and are only compared to each other. It neglects to show full context: that US Left is actually Middle, and US Right is actually Far Right.
> It neglects to show full context: that US Left is actually Middle
The US Left is Left, but the US has three big factions: a very large Right faction and smaller Center and Left factions, and he Democratic Party is an uneasy Center-and-Left coalition, where the Center faction has been dominant for the last couple decades but has lost some ground in the last few years to the resurgent Left.
As mentioned in one of the last "Fun and Procrastinatey" footnotes:
> The U.S. Left has moved enough that it now matches Europe’s leftness. The U.S. right remains further right of most of the European Right.
Viewed globally, according to this link, the US Democratic Party only crossed to the Left of the median party in the past 5 years. There are very few parties in the world as far Right as the US Republican Party.
This article sounds like it's trying very hard to stay neutral and simply point out the increased polarization. Left and Right are Blue and Red, and are only compared to each other. It neglects to show full context: that US Left is actually Middle, and US Right is actually Far Right.