In general, though, it's been seen as a core responsibility for activists and politicians to channel their constituents' passions towards productive ends. There've always been a lot of toxic people in the world - that doesn't have to lead to toxic politics.
But perhaps it's the other way around? That the voters are led to believe there are extremes? And only extremes? Most reasonable people understand few things in the world are truly binary.
But when everything is framed as red v blue, what choice is there? That paradigm is topped with confirmation bias, media hyperbole and social media misinformation.
I have a diverse group of friends and colleagues. No one I know wants this.
Is it though? Most people are more politically center and the extremes of the political spectrum keep trying to pull politicians towards the extremes. When that failed to work, they started pulling out the "you're either with us or against us" card forcing people to pick sides or be ostracized if they risked being nuanced.
Politics and media have become extreme because they are dying "industries." The internet has (pardon me) disrupted both of them. Severely. They crank up the hyperbole in order to try to justify the need for their existence. That cycle can't go on forever. In fact we see the results weekly. For example, politicians aren't moving the needle so more and more people resort to protesting (and yes, rioting).
I'm not an advocate of violence. But it's easy to see the level of frustration and disgust wasn't being addressed.
I started agreeing with you when you said politicians were failing people.
I disagree sharply about the riots, though. I think bad actors use things like social media (and even traditional media) to whip people into a frenzy. That's where the violence comes from, and it is rooted in politics more than a reaction to it.
We should come to some agreement and maybe give some people 3/5ths of their rights, as has been done prior. That should solve these "extreme" positions with some much needed compromise.
