The divide. The split. The tribalism. The partisanship.

We hear about it everywhere.

People speak about it at the Oscars. It comes up in the sports world. And in religion. Even parenting.

You don’t have to be a policy wonk to feel like you can’t escape the implication that there is division in the United States everywhere. That we are more the Divided States of America. And...

Working in politics, people throw a lot of numbers around. In fact, even if you follow politics pretty passively, you hear a lot of numbers: “$5.7 billion," “70 percent approval rating among Republicans," “won re-election by a four point margin," etc. The frustrating thing is that many of these numbers are thrown out with a great deal of confidence and very little contex...