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“For the MOST part; haven’t they ALWAYS been?”

Yes and no. There are different levels of “toxic.” There’s something that gives you an upset stomach and something that a mere drop of on your skin will kill you instantly. As America approached the first Civil War the toxicity was just short of kill level. During the second world war the Republicans were “the loyal opposition.” (Not toxic at all.) My father was a Democrat in the sixties. You could have had a reasonable conversation with any Democrat then and disagreed and still gone out for a beer afterwards. Everyone had more in common than they had differences of opinion. The Democrats, like my father, were staunchly pro-American. When my Dad told me he was voting for Reagan, I was shocked. I asked why and, blushing, he said, “I didn’t move away from the Democrats but they have moved so far away from me I don’t recognize them anymore.”

The hippie generation was infecting society and the Democratic party like a cancer. Alinsky had moved the Democrats from being reasonable but misinformed to being outright communists. The divisions caused by the alphabet and black identity movements have divided the electorate into tiny self-interest groups. Alinsky’s theory was, it is easier to rule over a public divided than one that sees itself only as “Americans.” He was right.

In the periods of WWI and WWII and probably through the end of the fifties you could almost say that there was only one public opinion. America was great and good for the world. Then, along came Vietnam and plenty of financing of anti-Americans by the KGB and other evil actors and they succeeded in carving up the American public, instituting anti-family, anti-Christian and anti-human values.

I think that for the greatest part of history, American politics was like a lively discussion between people with common interests. Today it is outright war where even having a differing opinion is “violence” worthy of getting you killed by real violence.