the pew center survey on polarization is interesting. the most dramatic result, as they emphasize, is that about a third of people who are defined as 'consistent conservatives' or 'consistent liberals' regard the other side as "a threat to the nation's well-being". obviously, both sides are right about that. as you might imagine, i am going attack "consistent', which is defined here. 'consistent' here means toeing the party line. but on each side that just means a random grab-bag of mutually incoherent positions on this and that. so, the basic right-left divide is defined in terms of anti- and pro-big-government. now, nothing about either of those positions has anything at all to do with issues like gay marriage or abortion, for example (on these and many other questions, a 'consistent conservative' has to endorse various incursions by the state into people's private lives, while the liberal position should be understood as attacking the legitimacy of various state constraints on autonomy or choice.) to be a consistent conservative on the pew scale is to be both a small-gov libertarian and an enthusiastic proponent of a big military and the domestic security state. in other words, the most consistent people on the pew scale are the people who most boldly endorse flat contradictions. these, i say, are basically social configurations or something, because they are certainly not anything like actual political ideologies; rather, they are randomly assembled collages of prejudices. seeing how passionate people are about endorsing such things at least provides some comic relief amidst the stupidity and suffering and catch-phrases.
so obviously we are suffering from our political polarization. people are always trying to prescribe a cure; mine is philosophical i guess. try to make your positions consistent not with the narcissistic empty crap of hillary clinton or ted cruz, but within themselves. don't try to be consistent with your facebook friends, but with yourself. then there will be no left/right polarization because there won't be any left and right.
