After bomb plot and yet another mass shooting, Americans on both sides of the political spectrum hold out hope, albeit slim, that the violence can help return civility to politics.<\/b>
\nShe flipped through television channels and radio stations, scanning from conservative to liberal media, searching for any sign that the polarized nation had finally reached its tipping point.
For days, Elisa Karem Parker had been seeing updates in the news: A pipe bomb sent to liberal political donor George Soros. One delivered to CNN. More to former President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and other prominent political figures villainized by those on the right \u2014 a bizarre plot unfolding just ahead of the midterm election that will decide which party controls Congress.
\u201cIt\u2019s like our country is becoming \u2018The Hunger Games,\u2019\u201d Parker, who considers herself squarely in the middle of the political divide, told her husband and teenage son over dinner.
As authorities intercepted more than a dozen pipe bombs addressed to President Donald Trump\u2019s most ardent critics, political scientists and ordinary Americans observed, again, that rabid partisanship had devolved to the point of acts of violent extremism. Many wonder whether this latest spasm might be the moment that the nation collectively considers how poisonous the political culture has become and decides to turn the other way.
\u201cIf this isn\u2019t it, I\u2019d hate to think about what it will take,\u201d said Parker as she cast her ballot in early voting last week in Louisville, Kentucky.
The mail-bomb plot is merely the latest in a series of stunning attacks to test how much political animosity Americans are willing to accept: the shooting of a Republican congressman at a baseball practice, the white supremacist rally that turned deadly in Virginia, the recent ricin scare-letters mailed to Trump and other top members of his administration.
On Friday, authorities arrested a suspect in the bomb probe \u2014 a 56-year-old registered Republican and Trump enthusiast who \u201cappears to be a partisan,\u201d Attorney General Jeff Sessions said when asked about motive. By then, politicians and talking heads had already backed into the usual corners: Both parties blamed the other, and the president called for unity, then again described liberals and the media as villains. The hope Parker had that this might be a turning point faded.
And then, on Saturday, news broke of a mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue, an attack likely to cause ugly partisan debates over gun control, hate speech and more.
The volatile tribalism now so ingrained in American life will eventually right itself, says Robb Willer, a sociology professor at Stanford University, but not until the public decides it\u2019s had enough and stops rewarding politicians who use incendiary language and demonize the other side. It\u2019s impossible to guess, he notes, how much damage will be done in the meantime.
\u201cThat is the question of our time: Are we going to choose to continue the war, or are we going to choose peace? And we don\u2019t know yet what the answer to that will be, because while a majority of Americans are fed up with the extremity of our political divisions, it does feel like we\u2019re stuck here,\u201d Willer says. \u201cIt will get worse before it gets better.\u201d
Animosity between parties has been growing for decades now, to the point that studies show Republicans and Democrats don\u2019t want to date one another, don\u2019t want their children to marry one another and don\u2019t want to live in the same neighborhoods at a rate unprecedented in modern America. At the same time, politicians began using increasingly apocalyptic language. Willer says those two forces \u2014 the splintering of society along party lines and the ascent of vitriolic campaigning \u2014 merged to create a breeding ground for violence.
\u201cIt was simmering,\u201d says Parker. \u201cIt\u2019s like the gas burner was on, then Trump lit the fire.\u201d
The president vaulted to political prominence by promoting the racist and false conspiracy theory that Obama was not born in the United States, launched his presidential campaign by calling Mexicans rapists and murderers, and routinely describes his enemies, including the intended recipients of the pipe bombs, as \u201cevil,\u201d \u2018\u2018dangerous,\u201d \u2018\u2018the enemy of the American people.\u201d
\u201cThat let loose a period of incivility, which is too mild a word; it\u2019s potentially explosive anger that can turn into violence,\u201d says Bob Shrum, a former Democratic strategist who last month started the Center for the Political Future, a program at the University of Southern California designed to restore sanity and bipartisanship in politics.
He\u2019s watched with frustration as some liberal politicians respond to Trump\u2019s presidency by imitating his divisive style. He describes it as a \u201ccold civil war,\u201d where people consider those who disagree with them bad, un-American \u2014 their enemy.
\u201cIs there a tipping point? I don\u2019t know,\u201d he says. \u201cI do believe we\u2019re in a dangerous moment, unlike anything I\u2019ve seen in my lifetime, and I\u2019m 75 years old.\u201d
There is little evidence the tide will turn soon.
Moderates are becoming increasingly rare in Washington, D. C., and Republicans willing to criticize Trump\u2019s rhetoric, such as Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona and Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, are not running for re-election.
\u201cYou don\u2019t really have those reasonable voices kind of trying to bring everybody together,\u201d says Tom Freeman, a Republican attorney in Lincoln, Nebraska. \u201cIt\u2019s just kind of round and round we go, and the sides just get more and more extreme, and you don\u2019t have that rational leader in the crowd saying, \u2018Hey, let\u2019s dial it back.\u2019 The sad thing is, if you did have that person, I don\u2019t know that anyone would listen to them.\u201d
The polarization is bleeding into everyday Americans\u2019 personal lives.
Robert Major, a 51-year-old electrician and Republican from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, says he once moved because his landlord, a liberal, screamed at him for watching conservative news channels.
Meeka Grayer, a 38-year-old radio talk show host and Democrat from Omaha, Nebraska, lost friends over the divide. One conservative friend posted on Facebook about the migrant caravan heading toward the United States from Central America, parroting the president\u2019s vilification of the group. Grayer objected and was attacked for her comments, prompting her to block her friend.
Though on opposite sides politically, Grayer and Major agree: The political climate is toxic and tiresome, but they have little confidence it will change because it\u2019s too useful to politicians who want to stay in power.
\u201cI think it\u2019s time for the little guy to take control, but will that happen?\u201d says Randy Wick, a 68-year-old Republican in Bloomingdale, Illinois, who blames Republicans, Democrats and the media for the division. \u201cIt seems like a good ol\u2019 boys club up there in Washington. It\u2019s all about money.\u201d
Willer, the Stanford sociologist, says the absence of political leaders brave enough to try to steer the country onto a better path means it will be left up to voters to break the cycle. Until then, the divisions will only get deeper.
Some already casting votes for the Nov. 6 midterm election say they hope the system can self-correct. The future of the nation, the very concept of democracy, is at stake.
\u201cAmerica is resilient; we find a way even in our darkest days,\u201d 36-year-old Cordell Lawrence said as he voted last week in Louisville. Lawrence described himself only as a moderate, preferring not to make public what party he leans to because he worries that could hinder personal and professional relationships.
\u201cMaybe we have to hit rock bottom before we find how to get back up,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re probably pretty close to rock bottom today. At least I hope we are.\u201d
___
Galofaro reported from Louisville, Kentucky. Beck reported from Omaha, Nebraska. Also contributing were AP writers Martha Irvine in Bloomingdale, Illinois; Ellis Rua in Coral Gables, Florida; Nicholas Riccardi in Denver; and Hannah Grabenstein in Little Rock, Arkansas.
___
For AP\u2019s complete coverage of the mail-bomb scare: https:\/\/apnews.com\/PipeBombAttacks
For AP\u2019s complete coverage of the Pittsburgh synagogue shootings: https:\/\/www.apnews.com\/Shootings<\/p>\n

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