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Notes -
Political polarisation is way, way higher than it was in either of these eras.
Is it? People vent more online, but there was no online really in previous eras. I remember the '90s being pretty polarized, the 80s too. Clinton was impeached, so was Bush. You can still meet old leftists as pissed off about Reagan as modern lefties are about Trump. If political violence is our measure, the '80s and '90s were much worse. Reagan was shot, the feds murdered a bunch of people (Waco saw 76 dead) and some militia terrorists blew up a federal building in retribution (body count 168). And that's just the headlines.
Seems to me that people are pretty angry, but over less and less. The '80s had all the banana republic wars, Iran/Contra, AIDS, homelessness, the Cold War etc. The '90s had the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Gulf War, Kosovo etc. The oughts had Iraq and Afghanistan. What are people freaking out about now? Neopronouns and hysterical conspiracy theories? The Overton Window has never been smaller, yet people are as pissed off as ever.
I'm open to being wrong here, but your assertion just doesn't ring true to me. If you have a measure of polarization in practical terms, I'd love to see it.
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