“We want to keep the government open,” Moolenaar said ahead of Sept. 30 compromise. “We want to secure the border. We also want to look at this long-term debt problem. … We’ve wanted to reduce spending because of the debt … and inflation.”

Similarly, Dingell fought to avoid the shutdown.

“You’re watching now total chaos and drama (over) whether the government will continue to be funded, which isn’t acceptable and not a way to run anything,” she said.

The rise of extremism

Tim Alberta, the author of the “American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of the President Trump” and a writer for The Atlantic, said extremists exist in both parties. However, leadership of the Republican party has been captured by an extremist mentality, which makes the Republican party fall further right than Democrats far left, he said.

“Extremism in American politics is nothing new,” Alberta said.

Extreme views existed when the U.S. was founded and during the American Civil War, he said.

In this new era, a different form of extremism emerged at the end of George W. Bush’s presidency in 2008. Wars, beginning of economic collapse and the first African American president — all came over a short period of time, Alberta said.

“(White suprematism) really created the conditions for a new wave of extremism in our politics, (in) particular conservative politics,” Alberta said. “(The) party … began to embrace an angry militant populism that ultimately manifested itself in Donald Trump.

“But the signs were there long before Trump came along.”

Heidi Beirich, a writer for the nonprofit civil rights think tank Southern Poverty Law Center, said white supremacists’ race-based movement started in 2000, and accelerated in response to Barack Obama’s presidency.

However, for a long time, neither Republicans nor Democrats wanted to associate themselves with those extremists – not until Donald Trump came to power, she said.

How much did Trump damage the middle ground?

Trump-style leadership is not a uniquely American phenomenon, Beirich said. Rather, she said, the “Trumpian world out there” exists in the faces of leaders of Hungary, Brazil, India and others.

“They come to power through elections, but their platforms are intended to reduce the civil rights protections of various populations,” Beirich said. “Once they get into power, they become more autocratic.”

Trump was able to influence the population — Americans the below poverty level included — even though he despises those who are below the poverty level, Beirich said. That also had historical and psychological patterns, she said.

“I think that there are people trying to destroy this country by the division of fear and hatred,” Dingell said. “I think Donald Trump is trying to divide this country.”

The polarization “is feeding off” things like social media, cable news and misinformation that further divides people, Alberta said. However, he added that American institutions are strong, and the country has been through a deeper division before.

“I certainly think that in his first term, Donald Trump tested our institutions in ways that we had never seen, at least not in modern history,” Alberta said. “A second Trump presidency would be even more damaging to those institutions, our civic norms, that we would be even further divided.”

Will the center hold?

Younger generations became politically aware in the times of extremism, Alberta said.

“Young people are the ones inheriting the world,” LaRouche said. “Young people really see what is at stake, and they’re getting engaged and participating in our democracy.”

According to Gallup website, Generation Z votes 31% Democrat and 17% Republican.

But throughout the history, things are cyclical, Alberta said. If one party gets a great victory in the elections, the other likely will have its win in the next ones.

Similarly, even though young people vote Democrat today, they might vote Republican when they get older, Alberta said.

What is different, the young generation is more diverse, Beirich said.

“That doesn’t mean that the politics might not become more conservative as people get older when they have different issues on their mind,” Beirich said. “But what won’t change is a rejection of racism and white supremacy – that’s not something that’s going to shift as somebody goes from being 20 to 50 (years old).”

However, the young generation will only come to power in about 10 or 15 years, Beirich said, and it is hard to say whether the center will hold through that time.

“There’s so much stacked up against it, and so much really actually rides on this election in 2024,” Beirich said. “It’s a pivotal moment.”