America's politics aren't the only thing that's polarized, so are America's economies. The growing divide between the country's more economically vibrant and diverse areas and it's less dynamic monolithic regions is another factor in what's driving national political divisions. CNBC's John Harwood writes:
Republicans represent the smaller, fading segment, with less-educated, more-homogenous work forces reliant on traditional manufacturing, agriculture and resource extraction. Democrats represent the larger, growing one, fueled by finance, professional services and digital innovation in diverse urban areas.
If those broad generalizations sound a little absolute, it's because they mostly are that absolute. Check out this chart showing the top 20 GDP-contributing districts are all represented by Democrats now.
According to data from the Brookings Institute, the districts where Democrats prevailed in the midterm contribute fully 61 percent of the nation's total gross domestic product (GDP), while GOP districts account for 38 percent of GDP.
"The Democratic Party and Republican Party, at this point, really do occupy different economic worlds and represent different economic worlds," says Brookings' Mark Muro. "The advancing parts of the economy have to ask permission from the rear-view mirror parts of the economy to get the inputs they need. That's a problem our competitors don't have."
Fast-growing economies do create challenges related to housing, economic inequality and other factors. But solutions to those problems aren't going to come from areas of the country that don't deal with them.
In the meantime, it's the blue regions of the country that are generating the greatest wealth, now more so than ever. The trick will be figuring out how to translate that wealth into a better standard of living for far more rather than fewer people.