David French on the Polarization in America
b"David French attorney, political commentator, and author. A fellow at the National Review Institute and a staff writer for National Review from 2015 to 2019, French currently serves as senior editor of The Dispatch, a fact-based digital media company, that endeavors to provide both sides of any given position. In 2020, he published Divided We Fall: America's Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation. Today, he will discuss the polarization he studies in his book and why short-term solutions seem improbable. \\n\\nIn a recent article, David French called the political climate a \\u201cnew fundamentalism.\\u201d A fundamentalist, he explains, often has no existential humility or uncertainty, and that\\u2019s what we now see in politics. He similarly highlights three recent political trends: The Big Sword - Americans have begun in the last few decades to intentionally live around like-minded neighbors; The Law of Group Polarization - when like-minded people gather, they reinforce those shared opinions to an extreme; Overton Windows - while the Overton Window concept is the range of policies politically acceptable to the mainstream population at a given time, there are now two separate windows for either party in the case of many issues. \\n\\nGo to NoLabels.org to learn more about how we are bringing together a bipartisan group of public and private leaders working to solve America\\u2019s toughest problems."