Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree, but anecdotally, as someone who spends a lot of face-to-face time around people on both sides of the typical left-right division, neither of which represent my views, it is very frustrating for me, and I suspect rather pointless for them. I've never left a political conversation like this feeling like I made a dent in anyone's ideology; they just leave thinking I'm a weirdo.
I think the same, and I'd go a step further. I don't particularly _want_ to get along with people who have no problem with abortion, nor with people who have no problem with torture. Why should I see being de-polarizing as something desirable? (And where can I move to?)
And the reason why we should be less polarized, politically, is because there are a large number of important issues that can be solved, and need to be solved, even if we can never come to agreement on others. The way politics is being managed in the U.S. is basically an "all or nothing" grab bag on every single issue, with no chance for compromise, and that just leads to hours of pointless rhetoric and gridlock while the problems just get worse.
IMO, one of the parties is a worse offender than the other, but it really only takes one side being intractable to ensure nothing gets done the way the U.S. government is set up.