Maybe it's because there's too much sensationalism and story-telling? People realized you get better ratings through theatrical emotionally charged fictions sitting adjacent to reality and they're cheaper to produce than careful and cautious journalism? That's kind of Juvenal's bread and circuses theory.
Maybe it's a natural consequence of the vast diversity of information channels and online communities so not only do classically oppressed groups have homes but also those committed to hate or messianic cults?
Maybe there's some increased isolationism of industrial society so people end up severing the in person community ties that help to keep them better attached to reality?
Maybe it's all of these?
My observation of the current state is Republicans are pining for a dictator, Democrats are trying to be a 2002 era George W Bush knockoff and most people are thinking "what is up with these lousy options?"
It's the problem you see in almost all organizations: when you focus on the fans, you alienate the base by deluding yourself into imagining a phantom majority a few steps away from loving you but which in reality wants nothing to do with you.
You noticed how you labeled the alternative to your choice as a dictator? I did.
The solution is to remove parties and make people think for themselves. But I do agree focusing on the extremists is counterproductive. That’s why I’m an independent, to forcefully remove bias.
I voted for some third party candidate just like I have every other time.
I do attend Trump events almost weekly however. There's people who want to get rid of elections entirely. This is a strong belief among many of his supporters. They didn't think elections can be trusted - the "wrong" people are voting, the counting is corrupt, etc. They want no voting or only voting by an extremely vetted group that only agree with them.
The few Democrat events I've gone to, their supporters are completely hallucinating reality. I got constantly blindsided by the irrelevant issues they think are front and center.
I spoke with one recently who thinks the personal religious convictions of the candidates will make evangelicals switch their allegiances to the Dems. Mickey mouse is more likely to pop out of a movie screen. Total whackjobs.
Anyways, simply distancing oneself from a party is part of the problem. It requires the cult of the individual as an insitutional necessity.
should one party move to the other or something else?