The vitriol between Republicans and Democrats in the US has always been there, and I think it started escalating rapidly after Nixon. Even with George Bush Jr in the early 2000s, which had its own set of big problems, it was still "civilized," although people look back at that time and think it was insane (because it was). But the rhetoric has only accelerated even more, and the Trump administrations are the natural end result of this ever-increasing polarization, unfortunately.

I feel like "reasonable" Republican positions died with out after Reagan. Even though most people in this space will never say Regan's positions were reasonable (much less good or defensible), there was still a veneer of civility and respect for what little democratic function America had at the time.

At this point, all of that has been thrown out the window. Even Pence, for how evil of a person he is, still refused to destroy the process, at least.

I agree: it’s extremely difficult to find what I would call the “middle 80%” since the only people who tend to get all the media attention are the extremes at both ends who are hell bent on maintaining their airtime with ever more insane stunts.

I don’t understand how people can vote for someone who did such a piss poor job his first time around, but then again my province elected a drug dealer who ran with literally no election platform whatsoever and won, twice. It boggles the mind. Populism is a cancer.