History of political polarization
Levels of bipartisanship in the congress are the lowest levels since reconstruction. The party system based on the regional cleavages might have resolved civil war had more bipartisanship than the current congress. Polarization had not been a constant in history, through much of the 20 th century, it wasn’t that way at all. There were large blocks of conservative democrats that republicans were liberal. Over the past 40 years there have been high levels of deterioration in bipartisan cooperation.
The election of Ronald Reagan, the defeat of Robert Burks nomination, the impeachment in 1998, 2000 election. There have been a lot of focus in how the elections are conducted, whether they are partisan primaries or gerrymandered congressional districts of uncontrolled campaign- finance. There is some evidence that the campaign finance system has contributed to a system that was already polarized.
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It is because the state has become a much more diverse society over the last 45 years.
Pew research: partisan divide grows wider
Partisan divide has been a powerful force in politics. There is little common ground between among partisans today. The partisan differences are wider today than they were in the past. There has been a steady trend towards greater polarization according to pew, that is lower approval ratings.
Economic inequality and political polarization
Different groups of Americans suffer different economic success. It [polarizes the discourse and leads to greater divisions. Economic inequality and low growth tend to correlate with one another and low growth does lead to political extremism as seen in the United States and throughout the rest of the world.
Political polarization, race and immigration
The issues of race and immigration impact the current level of political polarization as immigrants play a very huge role and minorities are now a massively growing segment of the electorate. Currently there were more nonwhite children born in the united states than whites which scares a lot of people and also provides hope to a lot of people. There is a remarkable racial divide whereby African Americans and Hispanics are likely to say that the country is headed in the right direction.
People who experienced a lot of discrimination in their lives believe that their kids will have a better future than the one they had so they are optimistic. The white people believe that their kids will not have a better future than they did because they are in a lot of economically depressed areas. Immigration, changing demographics of America have unsettled the electorate for a very long time.
The rise of ideological news outlets
Ideological news outlets are outlets that are interested in pushing a certain news agenda which is a huge problem not only for democracy but for the trust that people have in journalism. The news mainly consists of ideologically tainted information. A large population believe that the news media is too left-wing and a substantial amount of people believe that it is too right-wing.
The media has impacted people’s dealings with each other as public dealings with each other’s issues changed drastically because every individual was dealing with a different set of facts and it became difficult to have a civil conversation with each other. For example, after the elections between Donald trump and Hillary Clinton, Americans were still vilifying and demonizing beach other. The differences in their votes, healthcare and working with the public have to do a tremendous amount of work to introduce enough information that is actually shared information that everyone present will agree is factual. It has become problematic as it has become a threat to democracy.
Changing political demographic and geographic trends
After the recession the big American cities have boomed and American metropolitan areas are now the drivers of the national economy as they produce most of the goods and services exported oversees, they produce a huge percentage of the national gross domestic product and produce a high percentage of the jobs created in America. Hundred largest counties in America 97 of them have gained population. There is exodus out of rural America, new jobs are not coming in, manufacturing plants that closed during recession were overwhelmingly in the rural areas and are still struggling to recover.
The demographic advantage is that they are doing better among big urban cores. The geographic problem that democrats face is that their voters are confined to smaller areas especially in the battle to control the house of representatives such that they are not reaching voters. They have a geographic problem they need to connect with the voter necessary ex- urban districts like Dent’s district or Ryker’s district in Washington state, districts they need to win back the house.
Republicans have a geographic advantage, they connect with the voters necessary, more rural and ex urban areas and thus have the geographic edge. Their demographic disadvantage is that their voters are getting older, whiter and more homogenous than ever before. It will work out worse when they are trying to win congressional district or senate seat set in a big state. The disadvantage that republicans face is that they have to find a way to appeal to new voters who don’t look like them and democrats have to find a way to appeal to voters who they traditionally had and were doing well with until the last 20 years when those voters moved more to the republican side.
Polarization of political parties
It is how each side worked to speak to its own base so much more than to speak to a persuadable middle. Example includes Donald Trump’s ‘make America great again’ he was appealing to base that saw America what had changed, is changing dramatically and may not like a lot of that change and Hillary Clinton’s ‘forward together’. That is a much more liberal inclusive message and one that is driven by the party in the urban cores where people are far more socially liberal than they have ever been and where the idea of a transgender bathroom ban is grossly offensive.
They view each other not just in unfavorable light but deeply unfavorable. They are more anxious about what the other party is going to do, fearful about the other party It is a problem because when you start from a position of mistrusting the other side it becomes impossible to do a deal on capital hill or to have a conversation about how America goes in the future.
Pew has a great number that show about 15% of democrats and republicans were fearful of the other party back in 1994. Today it is about 60% of democrats and republicans.
