Repeatedly, the evidence suggests that we remain as racially divided today as we were 60 years ago when the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision supposedly desegregated America’s schools and launched a civil right revolution.

The two major American parties have moved from the traditional place as coalitions of diverse viewpoints to more European-style ideological political entities.

The U.S. Supreme Court term that ended in June is just one example of how polarization is undermining confidence in the judiciary and turning that branch of the government into just another partisan body torn by politics.

The social capital that sustains political visions and engagements has been allowed to depreciate as we have been waging a cultural war amongst ourselves since the late 1960s.

If political polarization is driven by the public, how can Congress be so much more polarized than the people?

When rivalry hardens into a sullen standoff — not a contest of ideas but a bloody-minded refusal to engage — you have a problem.