By it's very nature, pluralism leads to what the founders called "factionalism" and I call "tribalism." If we don't require a particular belief, people will sort themselves into communal belief systems that compete for power.
This leads to the first axiom of American democracy: One tribe, or faction, will never dominate. (In this context, a tribe can be a religion, political party, or any belief system.) It may hold a majority for a brief time, but there will always be another tribe pushing back against it.
Due to self-preservation or some evolutionary trait we picked up along the way, humans are really bad at admitting when they are wrong. This leads to the second axiom of American democracy: One tribe will never convince another tribe that they are wrong. A few may switch sides from time to time, but one tribe will never give up everything they believe in and willfully adopt the ethos of another tribe.
These two axioms lead to my conclusion: Our system of government was not designed to solve problems by growing one's tribe. Our system was designed to solve problems by building coalitions.
We start where we have common ground and make trade offs until everyone agrees that the best deal is on the table.
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