We Should Cheer Political Polarization. Here is Why

The rise of Donald Trump (and, to a lesser extent, Bernie Sanders) has led to a renewed wave of punditry decrying the polarization of both government and the electorate itself. Dave Wasserman’s recent piece at FiveThirtyEight is the latest, most influential version of the genre, but the conventional wisdom is usually the same: polarized politics is bad, the most extreme partisans determine elections through the primary system, special interest money in politics scares politicians into taking the party line, and voters themselves have culturally and geographically sorted themselves such that...