New research suggests that we’re making ourselves sick over politics
One thing that I see making the situation worse is the lack of common cause and identity.  There was always party division, but the other side was still seen as your fellow Americans.  Today, not only is there an opposing side, they are seen as an enemy that must be totally annihilated.  If we continue down this road it&#x27;s going to be disastrous because it&#x27;s going to leave no room for dissent inside or outside politics.<p>I&#x27;m not saying that Americans never disagreed, war&#x27;d with each other, etc.  That&#x27;s not the point.  The point is that we&#x27;re losing that belief in an American ideal that helps keep us together while we debate our issues.  The more divided we are, the more we&#x27;ll be ripe for the picking by those who never cared about America in the first place.<p>It&#x27;s not just TV and social media, but a belief that America should be a hodge podge of cultures united by nothing but an empty consumerist culture.  It&#x27;s pretty hard for things like forgiveness, giving the benefit of the doubt, and seeing each other as human beings to actually work in such a place when there are political interests that benefit by having those principles eliminated.  A hostile, low trust society clicks more ragebait and gobbles more food to combat depression.