Partisan divides over political values widen

[de officiis]

Partisan divides over political values widen

The gap between the political values of Democrats and Republicans is now larger than at any point in Pew Research Center surveys dating back to 1994, a continuation of a steep increase in the ideological divisions between the two parties over more than a decade.

The subsequent chapters explore Americans’ attitudes across individual political values and policy issues, in most cases including data dating back to the late 1990s or early 2000s. In nearly every domain, across most of the roughly two dozen values questions tracked, views of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents and those of Democrats and Democratic leaners are now further apart than in the past.

While the overall partisan gap across a variety of political values has steadily grown, the dynamic underlying the growing gap differs across issue areas. In some cases, the gap has grown because the parties have moved in different directions, with growing shares of Democrats taking liberal positions and increasing shares of Republicans taking conservative positions. But in other areas, shifts are greater among one set of partisans than another.

In a few issue areas, notably views of homosexuality and of immigrants, public opinion in both parties has clearly shifted in a more liberal direction over the past several decades. Nevertheless, the partisan gaps on both of these values have gotten wider over the past two decades, as the long-term shifts are more pronounced among Democrats than Republicans.

Lots more data and graphs on the site. I guess they're not telling anything we didn't already sense from following the news.

[SuburbanFarmer]

Inevitable consequence of generations of public figures differentiating and playing to their base.

With us or against us. Left or right. Divide and conquer. This is the endgame of any 2-Party system.

[Hanarchy Montanarchy]

A spirit of faction, which is apt to mingle its poison in the deliberations of all bodies of men, will often hurry the persons of whom they are composed into improprieties and excesses, for which they would blush in a private capacity.

The Federalist Papers No.15

#oldnews

[Martin Hash]

Inevitable consequence of generations of public figures differentiating and playing to their base.

With us or against us. Left or right. Divide and conquer. This is the endgame of any 2-Party system.

The 2-Party system is a natural: there are those in-power, and those wanting it. When the status quo is too difficult to break through, you have to change the Rules, otherwise known as political values. Control is a Zero-sum game: someone wins - someone loses, of course it's going to be brutal.

[Speaker to Animals]

They don't seem to want to address the fact that the divide is "widening" only because the so-called left has gone off into la la land.

Our current President "Literally Hitler" is literally to the left of Bill Clinton. Something to consider when thinking about why there is a widening gulf between Americans..

[kybkh]

Why isn't this in the 2014 thread???

[Martin Hash]

They don't seem to want to address the fact that the divide is "widening" only because the so-called left has gone off into la la land.

Our current President "Literally Hitler" is literally to the left of Bill Clinton. Something to consider when thinking about why there is a widening gulf between Americans..

New Rules appear ridiculous & threatening to people using the Old Rules. The groups The Establishment is battling are composed of all the people on the outside of the status quo: women, minorities & weirdos. Social Media has brought them together, and the fatal flaw of democracy, the fact that a relatively small contingent can leverage everyone, is being exploited.

[GloryofGreece]

They don't seem to want to address the fact that the divide is "widening" only because the so-called left has gone off into la la land.

Our current President "Literally Hitler" is literally to the left of Bill Clinton. Something to consider when thinking about why there is a widening gulf between Americans..

New Rules appear ridiculous & threatening to people using the Old Rules. The groups The Establishment is battling are composed of all the people on the outside of the status quo: women, minorities & weirdos. Social Media has brought them together, and the fatal flaw of democracy, the fact that a relatively small contingent can leverage everyone, is being exploited.

I don't really see using media to bring even the outside groups together so to speak. They are vocal and amplified but often it appears they proverbially eat their own. They often splinter into insignificant sub groups within sub groups. I also think progressives or the Left in general tends to be more divided and generally unable to work together.

[DBTrek]

When an unyielding faction of totalitarian zealots emerge and demand full compliance with their ideology or open warfare, the political divide tends to widen.

If half the country suddenly went militant Islam, that'd be a pretty wide political divide.
Instead, half the country has gone Militant Critical Race Theory.
Same difference - the political divide widens.

[Martin Hash]

They don't seem to want to address the fact that the divide is "widening" only because the so-called left has gone off into la la land.

Our current President "Literally Hitler" is literally to the left of Bill Clinton. Something to consider when thinking about why there is a widening gulf between Americans..

New Rules appear ridiculous & threatening to people using the Old Rules. The groups The Establishment is battling are composed of all the people on the outside of the status quo: women, minorities & weirdos. Social Media has brought them together, and the fatal flaw of democracy, the fact that a relatively small contingent can leverage everyone, is being exploited.

I don't really see using media to bring even the outside groups together so to speak. They are vocal and amplified but often it appears they proverbially eat their own. They often splinter into insignificant sub groups within sub groups. I also think progressives or the Left in general tends to be more divided and generally unable to work together.

Is your argument that they haven't been effective? My goodness, man, we live in a PC culture quickly heading toward Post Modernist Cultural Marxism. How can something so anathema to average Americans being getting such traction unless those few malcontents have their fingers on the buttons?