why is Trump such a polarizing figure?

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I swore I won't get political on myLot... 3 drinks later: Ok, so I'm almost 40 years old, I can remember Reagan being president. I've lived through Republicans, I've lived through Democrats. Whenever anyone wins an election, there's an opposing party who wishes they'd been the victor. I mean, that's always an upsetting thing for someone. It seems like the level of division and polarization in the country right now is unprecedented. College students in tears over the election results. Rioting in the streets. Dark forebodings of the rise of a new Nazi-like Reich. Friendships being broken off over political differences. I honestly don't get what all the fuss is about. Trump is anti-establishment firebrand who ran on an anti-corruption platform. Think of him as the right wing equivalent of the sort of populist discontent that fueled Bernie Sanders' campaign. I think that's a much more realistic assessment than portraying him as some sort of nightmarish Hitler figure. Maybe you don't like Trump's immigration policies. Fine. But where was the uproar over Obama deporting more people than any other president? Where were the riots and panic in the streets over that? This sudden comparison between limiting immigration and the worst atrocities of 20th century fascist authoritarians strikes me as disingenuous given that we've had a president with a very conservative stance on deportations in the White House for the last 8 years. It seems more like partisan tribalism to me. One last thing I must mention is that the Regressive Left really brought this on themselves. For better or worse, electing Trump is a massive F You to all the those perpetually offended identity politics types out there. The Left was once a standard bearer of classical liberal values - freedom of speech, due process of law, tolerance for a diversity of opinion in the public square. We have seen in the last few decades the emergence of a Left which is openly hostile to those principles. Hillary Clinton's embrace of outrage politics (accusing Bernie the old school feminist of sexism, The Basket of Deplorables, Pepe the Frog is a white supremacist symbol, etc) exemplifies this trend, and outside of a few coastal Blue state strongholds it was soundly rejected. Trump on the other hand took great mischievous joy in flaunting his total lack of concern for political correctness. And rode that right into the White House. That's my take anyway. Curious to know what other myLotters think of this and I hope this post inspires some thoughtful and respectful discussion.