A Tale of Two Conventions

How did it get to this point?

The story of 2016 was the rise of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, two figures who, between them, captured close to 45 percent of all primary votes cast. Which means that nearly half of voters, across ideologies and parties, supported a figure who, at any other point in the nation's history, would have been relegated to the furthest reaches of the fringe.

Why this happened is the central question of 2016, and it's one we're likely to be pondering for a very long time. The answer is, as usual, extremely complicated.

There are economic factors, including (but not limited to) the continued fallout of the housing bubble and Great Recession, continued middle-class wage stagnation, and continued softness in the labor market, which is not nearly as well-off as the straight unemployment numbers suggest.

There's the technological disruption of the internet, which is still rippling out into both the economy and the culture. There's the prolonged ennui of war, both the hot wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the long war against radical Islam. There's political correctness and real racism—if the rise of Donald Trump has proven anything, it's that there are still real, honest-to-goodness racists in America. There's the forgotten-but-ingrained bitterness stemming from the 2000 election and then the legacy of two presidents—George W. Bush and Barack Obama—who were, either by accident or design, among the most divisive leaders in American history.