You follow the news. You can be forgiven for thinking that America is a political pushmi-pullyu: one body with a couple of divergent (and horned!) heads.

The presumption of hopelessness that suggests around, well, ever getting anywhere, is overblown.

That’s a central finding by Marshall Ingwerson, a special contributor and former top editor of the Monitor. The extremes get all the attention. But as he wrote recently – and talks about today in our weekly podcast – when it comes to most issues, hyperpartisanship is mostly what the performative fringe is selling.

Confident, free thinking counters that. And where thought is shifting, it’s often in the same general direction.