The second thing that baffles me is: Why has politics been 50-50 for over a decade? We’ve had big shifts in the electorate, college-educated voters going left and non-college-educated voters going right. But still, the two parties are almost exactly evenly matched... Usually we have one majority party that has a big vision for the country, and then we have a minority party that tries to poke holes in that vision.

Good observation. It's because both parties have the same vision, voters project whatever they want onto their favored party, and triangulation is a matter of cultural signalling, not setting and meeting political goals.

The parties, they write, “have prioritized the wishes of their most intensely devoted voters — who would never vote for the other party — over the priorities of winnable voters who could go either way.”

Obviously incorrect.

When parties were primarily political organizations, they were led by elected officials and party bosses. Now that parties are more like quasi-religions, power lies with priesthood — the dispersed array of media figures, podcast hosts and activists who run the conversation, define party orthodoxy and determine the boundaries of acceptable belief.

Oh yeah? Podcast hosts? You sure about that man? You don't think it might be about donors, consultants, and think tank fellows?

Harris clearly understands the problem. She has tried to run her campaign to show she is in tune with majority opinions.

Yes! She has! She is following the polls on every issue, just like the last 3 dem candidates! You even said earlier that she is sticking to Biden's policies on everything! So she should be winning, right??

The result is that each party has its own metaphysics. Each party is no longer just a political organism; it is a political-cultural-religious-class entity that organizes the social, moral and psychological lives of its believers.

I can tell someone's been reading Slate Star Codex

Sometimes it seems that Harris is running not to be president of the United States but to be president of a theme park called Democratic Magic Mountain

Wow dude, sick own

world's most infuriating imbecile. needs to be taken out to the alley and put down.