Ayn Rand is probably THE ultimate spokesperson for modern libertarianism and certainly widely read by Conservative politicians around the world. She is undoubtedly divisive. My point being Any political philosophy of any shade or leaning seems to lead to being zealous, therefore dangerous. I hour this makes sense.
Well. She was an odious woman. She was an average writer at best. Her so called insights were very shallow. But she is a convenient homework assignment for 15 year olds.
Having said that.
I agree with your final sentence. Clearly today our politics has become overzealous and dangerous. I am old enough to remember when opposing political opinions were thought to be just different roads to the same destination. No longer. I fear that the US system has become far to polarized to survive. The republicans have declared war on the notion of one-man-one-vote, and done it openly. That in itself is the end of the line for any meaningful US democracy.