Why we're polarized / Ezra Klein.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: What didn't happen -- How Democrats became liberals and Republicans became conservatives -- The Dixiecrat dilemma -- Your brain on groups -- The press secretary in your mind -- Demographic threat -- Interlude -- The media divide beyond left-right -- Post-persuasion elections -- When bipartisanship becomes irrational -- The difference between Democrats and Republicans -- Managing polarization- and ourselves.

America's political system isn't broken: it's working exactly as designed. But Klein reveals how that system is polarizing us--and how we are polarizing it--with disastrous results. In examining the structural and psychological forces behind America's descent into division and dysfunction, he shows that everyone engaged in American politics is engaged, at some level, in identity politics. Now our racial, religious, geographic, ideological, and cultural identities have attained a weight that is breaking much in our politics and tearing at the bonds that hold this country together--Adapted from jacket