Why We’re Polarized

Why this matters here

Klein’s Why We’re Polarized describes post–mid-century party sorting in which stacked social identities convert ordinary political conflict into identity-laden conflict, so opposing claims arrive as out-group speech before they are evaluated as propositions. When Interpretation No Longer Matters uses that apparatus to frame the 2015–2021 alignment cycle: volume and belonging cues rode an already-sorted field rather than inventing polarization from nothing. The source maps how conflict became existential; the book asks what argument can still do once audiences treat interpretation as allegiance.