LEFT, RIGHT, AND RELIGION: My Guardian column for this week is up. Among other things, it looks at why politics are so vicious this election cycle.

UPDATE: Reader Stan Brown emails:

Liked your Guardian article, but any comment on religious or quasi-religious fervor making politics more bitter since Reagan was elected in 1980 should at least mention Krauthammer’s point – Republicans think Democrats are wrong and Democrats think Republicans are evil. I don’t think anyone can begin to understand politics over this time period without it.

I hadn’t heard that one, but it sounds about right — though perhaps less true than it used to be.