The Deeply Weird Experience of the Modern Political Rally. If I may occupy the soapbox and carry the talking stick for just a paragraph, my own political sympathies these days are thus. First, I find myself pining for a time before politics was a person’s defining characteristic. Political polarization is a complex issue that ought not be dismissed with facile linear explanations—it’s partly a function of economic polarization, partly also a function of an era’s predominant political issues—in other words, on some issues sometimes there simply isn’t common ground. One needn’t be a trained historian to think immediately of times in American history when this was the case. My glasses are perhaps a little rose-colored, but as a child I don’t remember anyone decorating their vehicle with Bob Dole flags while simultaneously wearing Bob Dole-branded clothing from the waist up. Conversely, I don’t remember anyone ever comparing Bob Dole to Hitler.