[Rich]

My understanding from 538 is that on individual issues the electorate is more extreme than the politicians. However the the politicians are more extreme in terms of cohesive ideology. Members of the general public are frequently extreme right on one issue and extreme left on another.

of course the left - right spectrum is not perfect representation of political parties, but what is remarkable is how well it has fitted as a first approximation for over 200 years in numerous different countries.

[Godstud]

Right winger response to this: "No it isn't!!"

[Justified Force]

It is very likely if Democrats take back the House and Senate next year. We will just have to wait and see.

For Democrats to take back the House and Senate next year, that is very unlikely.

[redcarpet]

For Democrats to take back the House and Senate next year, that is very unlikely.

The gerrymandering by Republicans has inflated their majority by 12 seats I read a few weeks ago. The Dems might achieve a small Senate majority, you can't gerrymander in the Senate because it's got guaranteed 2 Senators per state. But seats based on population......with politicised district boundaries allows for that.

Most Western countries are smart in ensuring an independent electoral commission to help prevent gerrymandering, etc, the U.S is an aberration on this matter....

[MistyTiger]

The people just might be sick of the Republican behavior in Congress, especially sick of McConnell and Ryan. I would give it another year.

[Hong Wu]

Breaking news: Anonymous sources say that Trump told two unidentified intelligence officials to deny that there was any Russian collusion. This means that if any such people say there was no collusion, they must be one of those two and are only doing it because Trump told them to, which they would totally comply with. CHECKMATE DRUMPF.

Now back to your regularly scheduled terrorist attack.

[SpecialOlympian]

Not that the same wasn't done to Obama. Both parties are the problem in this regard. Partisanship is a big problem in the US and both Rs and Ds are to blame for it. Both of the parties also like to pretend that they are not to blame for this which is lie. Both parties should stop hating on Obama or Trump.....

Partisanship is a big problem but it's one that can largely be blamed on the Republicans, for several reasons:

-They have spent 8 years as the minority party

-They have an effective media machine pushing a specifically GOP, not conservative, view

-And (most importantly) they have spent a good couple decades winning state governments and the ability to create safer districts for their representatives.

The last point is important because of the second; when you set up voting districts so that they favor Republicans it no longer becomes a contest between Democrat Vs. Republican, but one of Republican ideological purity. So you see candidates getting primaried by ever crazier candidates who determine their views based on Republican media points. Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan don't watch Fox News and take it seriously, that's just pablum for their base.

This is also how you end up with groups like the Freedom Caucus, who genuinely believe AMERICANS don't just hate the ACA, but that they're desperately crying out for Medicare/Medicaid to be destroyed.

Point 2 is also how you end up with disingenuous posturing on issues that shouldn't be issues in the first place. IE, "Why is Obama afraid say 'radical Islamic terror,'" one of Trump's big talking points during the election.

[JohnRawls]

Partisanship is a big problem but it's one that can largely be blamed on the Republicans, for several reasons:

-They have spent 8 years as the minority party

-They have an effective media machine pushing a specifically GOP, not conservative, view

-And (most importantly) they have spent a good couple decades winning state governments and the ability to create safer districts for their representatives.

The last point is important because of the second; when you set up voting districts so that they favor Republicans it no longer becomes a contest between Democrat Vs. Republican, but one of Republican ideological purity. So you see candidates getting primaried by ever crazier candidates who determine their views based on Republican media points. Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan don't watch Fox News and take it seriously, that's just pablum for their base.

This is also how you end up with groups like the Freedom Caucus, who genuinely believe AMERICANS don't just hate the ACA, but that they're desperately crying out for Medicare/Medicaid to be destroyed.

Point 2 is also how you end up with disingenuous posturing on issues that shouldn't be issues in the first place. IE, "Why is Obama afraid say 'radical Islamic terror,'" one of Trump's big talking points during the election.

Fair points but you can't solely blame the Republicans when this thing was going on during Bush and now during Trump so... Make your own conclusions about this.