The Polarization Problem

Many posts have discussed partisan polarization.

Shane Goldmacher and Ruth Igielnik report on a to a new poll from The New York Times and Siena University

Only 26 percent said the conditions were even good, though that low level represents a slight uptick from 22 percent in the last Times/Siena poll in April.

An open-ended question asking voters to identify the “most important problem” facing the country was even more revealing.

The top issue that Democratic voters, 18 percent of them, identified was Mr. Trump and Republicans — more than those who said they were chiefly concerned with the economy. Nearly as many Republicans, 16 percent, said that Democrats were the nation’s biggest problem.

And independents? Their top concern was polarization and division.