[loudmax]

Most American voters are moderates. Party primaries and gerrymandering produce politicians that reflect the most active elements of the party base, rather than the majority of party voters.

Yes, you can still find moderate politicians if you look hard enough. They tend not to get the level of media attention of the extremists, but as they're inherently in "purple" districts, they tend not to have the political longevity of politicians in deep red or deep blue districts. More's the pity.

[Capricorn2481]

The point is that even moderates do not have an easily shared set of values. Which is why you can't name them

[loudmax]

Here are two:

  * Elaine Luria
  * Barbara Comstock

Both are from Virginia, and both were voted out of their politically moderate districts. This is the tragedy of being a centrist.

Most Republicans aren't deeply racist and most Democrats aren't deeply socialist. Americans largely want a functional representative democracy, with minimal restrictions on free markets and free speech and some measure of opportunity for all. Obviously "minimal" is subject to interpretation, but this is tinkering, not an absolute rejection of free speech or free markets or social justice.

We take these important fundamental values for granted as we pour political energy into disagreement over which bathrooms trans people should go to.

[veidr]

We meant name shared values, not politicians.

Free speech? Free markets? Those are good examples of values, if a little vague.

But in reality, even with broad definitions of them, I doubt you could get a significantly different percentage to agree on those things than the idiotic bathroom debate.

Does free speech include aggressive panhandling in the road? Does include shouting epithets and racist vitriol at a woman trying to enter a Planned Parenthood clinic?

Do free markets imply that my mining operation can dump the waste products of my bitcoin mine in the creek behind your house?

FWIW I do think you are right that the US political system has over decades so entrenched the two parties that it makes it impossible to see even the scant common ground that would exist otherwise.

But I don't think there's a huge amount of that common ground.