Just my opinion but I think they are getting more extreme. We can look at history to know politics have never been some form of kumbaya. But until more recent times while Democrats and Republicans may go at it they could still attend dinner parties together or gets drinks after work etc. It's rare we see that today because no one wants to be caught fraternizing with the enemy. And we are in a time when the more fringe voices seem to get much of the attention. This type of environment makes it harder to 'work across the aisle' because doing so gets one labeled a RINO on the right or even now a DINO on the left so people retreat even more into their 'tribes' because its safer there.
I hate to use this board as proxy for anything but in a certain way its relevant here. This board (or its predecessor) about 15 years ago actually had pretty good discussions. Yes people went at it but there was a certain level of respect which allowed people to debate, argue and yet still get along to a degree (and even have fun on occasion). Now it's just mainly a troll fest and completely tribal with many wishing death on others etc. etc. Not all that different than what's happening in the real world.
The Left starts at extreme. Their view of any issue is
What's ours is ours, what's yours is negotiable. They won't compromise on anything even when it's a case of cutting off their own nose to spite their face. They'll shoot themselves in the foot before they'll compromise.
But because many, most, maybe all, of their positions are so unrealistic, insane, and idiotic they often lose at the polls over them. That hardly means they'll give up trying however.
A great example of this was the gay marriage issue. The Left started out by saying they wanted this to be settled by popular vote and democracy. They or their opponents got gay marriage on the ballot in 35 states in various forms. The Left and gay marriage proponents lost 35 times.
The Left then came back and essentially said
The public and voters don't know what the hell they're talking about! We're taking this to the courts. So, they shopped judges and won enough legal cases through bench rulings with sympathetic judges that they got the issue in their favor. That is, gay marriage was decided in the US by an autocratic, dictatorial method and not by legislating though the democratic process. It was completely undemocratically decided.
That was fine with the Left because they got what they wanted, democracy and majority rule be damned. That's just one example of how the Left rolls on everything.
Thus, on this board as elsewhere when you are trying to discuss something with the Left it quickly devolves into a hate fest of trolling and insults. Many of the non-Left respond in kind and that's pretty much the end of any discussion. The typical pattern for the Left is as follows. Try using it to see this pattern evolve in any thread the Left is involved in. It's inevitable that it will pop up.
First, the Leftist will try to change the subject. This doesn't have to be a major change. An example might be the thread is about Biden being a perv. So the Leftist throws in
Well, what about Trump? He's a perv! If you fall for it, now the discussion is about Trump not Biden. The fix to that is to ignore the change or note it and return to the subject, Biden, thus
Okay, maybe Trump is, but we're discussing Biden here not Trump...
When that fails, the Leftist will resort to insults or ad hominem.
Fuck you, you troll... (insult) or,
You don't have a clue what you're talking about... ad hominem.
If you ignore these and continue to spam facts and a reasonable position the Leftist will move to their final rebuttal, they'll insult you then not respond further.
Fucking troll. That will be followed by a refusal to continue the conversation or they might put you on "ignore." That's a simple and childish way of getting around difficult debate with someone you seriously disagree with.
There is a fourth, but rare, alternative to the last one. The Leftist gets so bent by your position and facts they can't respond coherently. Instead they spout insane random babble at you.
In person, at this last stage Leftists often get violent too. This is when they'll assault you and you can respond by beating their pussy, wimp ass into the ground...
Lol… Where I live lots of things are named for him, including the Junior College where I got my Associate degree.