American politics are said to have become bitterly polarized. The passions and polemics of maximalists, we are told, are crowding out the preferences of moderates. The country's traditions of pragmatic accommodation and centrist policymaking are supposedly at risk in this hardened political landscape. Much of this caricature can be debunked. Nonetheless, there remains reason to explore the nation's supposed political polarization, for not all of it is a fiction. Causes, consequences, and possible correctives need to be better understood. | 
