Jess has just been told that MoveOn.org deployed volunteers to get Democrats to deaffiliate and vote for Steve Laffey, knowing full well that he cannot beat Sheldon Whitehouse in November, but Chafee can.

In the greatest irony imaginable, if Laffey wins tonight, it may just be because Democrats voted for him.  Liberals and ultra-cons unite to squeeze out a moderate– this must be the ultimate depiction of just how polarized American politics has become.  ~Liz Mair, GOP Progress

I suppose this could show how polarised our politics have become, or it could show that both MoveOn liberals and the so-called “ultra-cons” (the name sounds like something out of Transformers, doesn’t it?) are seeking to advance their own respective interests by the best means available to them.  If this means that liberals work to get an unelectable candidate nominated on the other side, this is nothing that Republicans haven’t been doing with the Green Party out West for years and years.  If a conservative challenger benefits from the work of the other party’s supporters, it works to the advantage of his campaign–and presumably the challenger does not think he is ultimately unelectable, which makes the help he receives from Democrats all the more amusing.  Besides, normally when a candidate draws supporters from both sides of the aisle this is taken as positive proof of his bona fides as a “moderate,” which would make Laffey the bipartisan choice and Chafee the GOP machine’s man. 

This does not necessarily represent polarised politics, but rather politics that people who define themselves as “moderates” inherently dislike because it is all together too competitive and substantive.