older generations who've seen some shit.

have you ever seen politics in America this divisive?

Never, the current state of affairs makes anything in the past look like child's play. We are staring authoritarianism right in the face at this juncture. I make the argument that we can trace some of this back to the way this country was formed, that is to say on unequal terms. Some founding fathers argued for abolition to be written into the constitution but it was not to be. 

In addition, Alexander Hamilton wrote in 1792, "When a man unprincipled in private life[,] desperate in his fortune, bold in his temper … is seen to mount the hobby horse of popularity … It may justly be suspected that his object is to throw things into confusion that he may ‘ride the storm and direct the whirlwind."