10 big things: America's polarized politics

Donald Trump was a symptom, not the cause, of our cancerous politics — and the disease is metastasizing. Signs of it spreading are everywhere: in politics, in media and in business.

Without the calming influences in those spheres, there are no checks on the forces reshaping the national discourse. People talk about how they are worried that what's happening now will be normalized. They've got it backwards. This is now normal. And it will only get worse.

The cable news channel you watch is now a statement of your politics. Once a bipartisan issue, feelings about Russia are now a marker of right vs. left. Thirty million people even believe it's acceptable to hold neo-Nazi views.