Tell me, how did we get this bad?

It really came to a head with Obama being elected. The small minded white people suddenly realized the tide was turning and they will be (gasp!) the minority! Look how much hatred Obama got from them and their GOP. His entire 8 years was met with opposition and hatred. Trump is payback in spades. They are going to the extreme socially and politically and many On the left are digging in their heels and shifting left to counterbalance it. Meanwhile the majority of people that should be speaking up in the middle are laying low for fear of their extreme colleagues in either wing.

I'll agree with part of your statement but Obama didn't help with racial tensions either

It's because the public outcry was so tense, that no matter what he said, there would be harsh criticism! It didn't help him to ease them at all!

Sorry, must disagree. In my opinion, it started with the Clinton impeachment. Was he ethically wrong, obstructed justice and guilty of perjury? Yes.
However, the Republicans at the time were so upset over their losses in 1992 and 1996 it drove them to pursue impeachment for an offense that MANY preceding Presidents had done. That is historical record. THAT was wrong.
Add to that environment of the Chad counting after the 2000 election. The divide became a flare point where one side said Bush wasn't truly elected. From then on, no matter the facts, both Republicans and Democrats cried foul to the rafters.
As examples: Republicans decry voter fraud. Never seen it. Democrats cry Electoral college fail since one didn't win in spite of the popular vote. Anyone ever look at the population in California vs Montana? Do they have the same Electoral votes? There is a reason for the Electoral college. If you have a different opinion, please let me know.

Btw, I voted for Ross Perot twice. For reasons I will be happy to relay if anyone is interested that seeks debate. Just saying

I like your analysis, but I disagree with you on when the division started, I would argue it began around the time of Watergate. When Nixon was elected the country was essentially whole but when the president whom the country trusted and loved betrayed them. This scarred Democrats trust in republican politicians which has continued the division due to the reasons you have listed.

I wish it was only America, but this is happening all over the world right now.
People have it too good, take everything for granted, and when finding out things are not that easy, they do not want to hear it, and follow the one who denies the truth and try to turn who still accept the (awful) truth as heretics, and well, boom there you go.

Times are also changing and people cannot always accept that, and they think they can prevent it by turning those who do accept the changes as heretical and kaboom! Another one.

Now those who accept the truths try to talk some sense into people only to be ridiculed, insulted and even depicted as criminals or traitors, forcing them to get a harder tone too, and the vicious circle is complete.

That's the case in the US, but also in the EU. Unless this vicious circle is broken in time, all this can lead to is civil war, and maybe even in the worst case scenario in a world wide scale (Nostradamus did (according to his believers) say that WWIII would be a war like humanity had never seen it before... hmmmmm?) and after that we'll say "This may never happen again" (like we did after WWII), and when the generation of survivors is dead, the issues above will start all over again.

Shows humanity is not as intelligent as people think (or want to believe).

Wow, honestly didn't expect something so insightful here. Also considering, in my view, the issues lie with both Democrats and Republicans in the USA in that neither have sought common ground for the common good for quite some time. Personally, it continues to widen the gap. My thanks!

Yeah, it appears that bashing down the other party has become more important than the national interest, and in the beginning it felt to me the Republicans only did that and that the Democrats still wanted to work for the national interest, but by now, I am not so sure anymore. Both parties will now have to reflect on themselves (then and on the media, as I already get a bit tired about how Fox and CNN appear to have different versions of the news now, and they seem to have become a kind of playball to blame for stuff when things are reported that may be true, but not really in the party's interest).

Now in the EU the situation is a bit more complex. Since the EU has no electoral college, but a system that works entirely different and have therefore more political fractions than just Republican or Democrat, but here you see parties trying to do the same in the EU as Trump is doing in the US, and they are gaining support also. Some of them even declared Trump a "hero", and of course other parties are also against them. However since we have more parties, and parties also mostly being forced to form coalitions, they cannot really afford to speak too bad of other parties as they know election outcomes can force them to govern together and when they beschmudged each other with hate speech before, that'll be quite difficult. Now that Trump is president in the US, all ministers are Republican... If Hillary Clinton was president now, all ministers would have been Democrat. The only European country of wich I know in which something like that can happen too is the UK, due to their district system, and well, see how well united UK politics is at the moment... Now coalitions are also far from perfect, but I guess it can at least prevent the strange situation the US is now in....

I mean, if Hillary Clinton was president now the I wouldn't doubt her competence as a president in general, but the way the US is divided now... I don't think she would have been able to get that fixed, especially not after the Trump fans still believe she's a criminal (and even some Trump haters still think so, while her "crime" was nothing but using her private mail address for national mail, while security protocols didn't allow her too, and that is a mistake many politicians worldwide make).

And the subjects of the fight change too. First it was foreigners, and now it's climate change that divides people.... Where does this lead to, and who is able to stop this?

World War 2- world war two built a new stage for the world of debate. now, no one can argue anything without being called hitler. the worst case scenario, it's used against a presidential candidate so much that it makes the side who invokes it look awful. guess what...

israel- speaking of hitler, a nation that tortures innocent people gets the pass to godwin's law for being jewish! also, if you wish not to use taxpayer money to provide them with military aide, you're basically the third reich. this relates to the previous reason for the political divide.

the boomer generation- eyyy an entire f**king generation entitled to poor government decision while declaring themselves self-reliant. responsible for modern day consumer culture in the united states that fuel the fast food industry and auto industry with more money to tempt politicians with. don't like that our government is doing awful things?! you're a libtard who wants more government control!

republicans vs. democrats - it's too powerful a feel to connect with stupid, pointless labels that somehow build a character of a person. another factor to this divide is that the democratic establishment are trying to politically engineer black people!

the divide is a complicated topic that's too tiring for me to fully explain rn.

Distrust and parties being unable to compromise

Funny....heh