Hinderaker is onto something but I think it’s even bigger and deeper than he frames it here. I think what’s happened is that America is now confronting the age old question that’s had the West racking its collective brain for the last 2500 years or so. Which is, should men be free or should they be subject to the enlightened will of their betters? Our political parties have evolved such that they come down on opposite sides of this question more consistently and over a broader range of issues than ever before. The two answers can’t be reconciled and so we have two totally dug in camps.
So, I think this is about Big Stuff, and I don’t know how a civilization resolves this sort of thing. I guess through historical trial and error. What’s dismaying is that America had it all figured out. We had answered the question clearly and confidently and could have avoided the tumult. But we’ve gone sort of wobbly on our principles and so now we’re being dragged into it.