I've never seen it so bad. The political climate is such that people's health have been affected. We have a friend who last year was in great shape. Now she's developed high blood pressure and insomnia. We had dinner with her and her husband and midway through the meal she brought up Donald Trump and the Republicans and almost lost it. And even though my wife is a liberal Democrat (I'm a Libertarian), she was astonished at the raw hatred our friend displayed. It was so visceral and intense that we worry about her health.
My wife's a Democrat, as I said, but she couldn't bring herself to vote for Hillary. But what bothered her the most was the double standard our friend displayed. My wife liked Bernie, yet our friend felt people like my wife (not to mention ME) paved the way for Donald Trump getting into office. So what that Hillary screwed Bernie? After she skizzled him out of the race what was needed was healing! Bernie knew he'd been screwed, but he played ball. And so what that she called Donna Brazile a "brain dead water buffalo!" All Hillary's crimes and indiscretions are old news. What we need is to get Trump out of office! He's a menace and will get us into nuclear war!
That's how she sees it.
I think the problem comes when these people begin believing their own propaganda. They're so used to winning that when Trump won the election, they couldn't handle it. As a libertarian, I've been critical of Trump's decision to send more troops into Afghanistan and Iraq. I oppose going to war against a country, then building it up after we defeat it. In the case of Europe and Japan after the second world war, I can see it, though I believe MacArthur's approach in Japan was vastly superior to Marshall's plan in Europe. But now we're spending massive amounts of money in moving troops into hostile areas, bombing it to rubble, then rebuilding it. It's insanity.
So yes, politics have polarized the country, and we have huge groups of millennials who are voting on two issues -- getting free birth control meds and abortion.
This holiday season will be the second since last year's election. I fully expect there to be more than a few heated discussions.