re: The reason we are so divided

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And for every "coastal elite" that ignored middle America and its concerns, there is someone in Middle America that ignores the "coastal elite" and its concerns. Both sides need to get out of their bubble more.

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This.

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Whittling it down to "coastal" isn't all that accurate. For the most part, Clinton won every major metropolitan city, not just the coastal ones

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But its the Coastal ones that vote Democrat by insane margins:

Hillary won metro New York by 28.4%
Hillary won metro Los Angeles by 38.8%
Hillary won metro Washington DC by 41.7%
Hillary won metro San Francisco by 60.5% (!)

If you get away from the coasts, the Democrats still typically win the big metros, but its by much smaller margins.

Even a liberal city like Denver is not nearly as lopsided as the coastal cities. Denver voted for Obama over Romney by +13.3%. It voted for Hillary over Trump by 17.3%. Even Detroit only went Democrat by about 20%. It's not anything like the 30-40% margins the Democrats rack up on the coasts.

The difference between living in metro Detroit and living in metro San Fracisco, is that in Detroit its mostly Democrats but everyone (outside of the very urban areas at least) knows plenty of Republicans. In San Francisco, no one has ever heard or seen of a Republican. And the problem is that it is these extreme coastal locations that are forcing their culture on to the rest of American through media.

There are plenty of big metros that vote 50/50 or even majority GOP. Cincinnati, Nashville, Charlotte, Houston, Dallas, Jacksonvile, Indianapolis, Phoenix, etc. are actually majority GOP voters if you take the entire metro area.

Birmingham is arguably the most conservative major metro in America (Oklahoma City is probably slightly ahead). Yet in Birmingham Trump only won by 21.2%. That means metro Birmingham is far more closer to what is "normal" in this country than any of those coastal cities.

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And for every "coastal elite" that ignored middle America and its concerns, there is someone in Middle America that ignores the "coastal elite" and its concerns.

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This is completely false. Unless a person in Middle America chooses to live as a recluse, we are made very aware of how the Coastal Elites think and act culturally. It's on every tv show. It's in every movie. Most of our news is handed to us once being filtered through the Coastal way of thinking.

We are constantly bombarded with "their side of the argument." But if you live in San Francisco, the way a person thinks in a place like Abilene, Texas is as foreign to them as someone from Mars would be. There are no avenues for these coastal elites to even start to understand why Middle America thinks the way it thinks.

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Both sides need to get out of their bubble more.

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I've visited 45 states, 30+ countries, on 4 continents. I've been to 52 of the 54 metro areas with at least 1 million people, and most of those at least 5 or 6 times. I've been to New York on probably 2 dozen occasions and typically choose to stay in areas like the East or West Village or the Upper West side, which are far off the typical tourist's path.

I have found that people who live in a Coastal bubble like New York or San Francisco are far more ignorant than your typical Middle American. I'm about as Conservative as anyone could possibly be. Yet I try when talking to folks who are liberal to understand their world view. Typically once a person from those Coastal areas here's I vote Republican, I'm stereotyped before I can say another word.