[PeterPrinciple]

The average conservative and the average liberal disagree on 95% of the issues and in the few limited cases where they do look at things the same, they won’t support a proposal by the other out of sheer tribalism.

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Your comments on the author may be true, but many here on FR thought the same about Trump winning. In your reference to the above article, can’t say I disagree with the statement.

[DoodleBob]

I agree there were many good people - on FR and elsewhere - in early 2015 who didn't have Trump at the top of their list. But I would submit to you that by June 2016 when Mr Hawkins wrote his screed, if you weren't for Trump you effectively were for Hillary. True, catharsis and confession are always around the corner but I haven't seen Mr Hawkins' mea culpa (though this back-handed "complimentary" Trump piece suggests he's still in denial.

As for the subjective 95% lie sprinkled amongst the truths, Rasmussen (which is the only reliable tracking poll) has had Trump in the 45-50% range for a while. He's currently polling better than Obama at his 14 month mark. As for this intimation that back in the good old days we all got along, that's hogwash. As I've written elsewhere on this topic, by most accounts, at the time of the Revolution, 20% were Loyalists, 33-45% were Patriots, and the rest were ballast. If you replace Loyalist with statist, and Patriots with Deplorables, we are right where we started.

This 95% #FakeStatistic is designed to make people think Trump is polarizing. Yea, he is...but not in the way Mr Hawkins wants you to believe. Trump is effectively causing people to unmask themselves, and the resulting hideous vision is leading people to flee their prior tribe(s). As noted elsewhere, Liberals/Loyalists have made politics their religion...What they really want is liberal Sharia law, a secular theocracy....for them, politics is the means to secular salvation. The minimum wage, gender equality, nationalized health care, and global warming—whatever their practical virtues—are not just expedient policy prescriptions. They are essential aspects of the liberal fatwa...Question them and you are not just wrong—you are a heretic.

One of the key and many times unsung elements of Trump and Deplorables, is that the coalition he put together has the potential to unite heretofore un-united individuals. Minorities of all stripes (blacks, hispanics, gays), union guys, and others used by the statists for decades suddenly seem willing to jump on the Trump Train. While many Patriots may chafe at the thought of working alongside some of these masses, I'd rather have Peter Thiel and Ben Carson in my boat than McCain or W.

I get your point. It's pretty grim in places. But I believe it's not as bad as Mr Hawkin wants us to believe.