![]() There was, and still is, a case for parties with contrasting points of view, even if that sometimes translates into roadside intolerance. If, however, the parties are becoming more ideologically distinct and coherent, that could have an upside. If America is becoming a nation of extremists, then it will just become harder and harder to govern ourselves. The big change, he said, was that the parties, which once were both ideologically diverse coalitions, have sorted themselves out on ideological lines and offer increasingly extreme candidates to the voters.Įveryone agreed that both kinds of changes - in the makeup of the parties and in the ideologies of the partisans - had happened, and that both created challenges for governing, but the relative emphases mattered. Another school of thought, led by Stanford's Morris Fiorina, argued that the ideological center had shrunk but not all that much, and that lots of Americans still agreed on many issues. Some political scientists, such as Alan Abramowitz of Emory University and Kyle Saunders of Colorado State University, marshaled evidence showing that support in the electorate for relatively centrist positions was shrinking. More controversial, in the 2000s, was whether polarization was a popular phenomenon as well as an elite phenomenon. All of those trends have grown worse in a mostly linear fashion since. The political class's middle was steadily hollowing out. Elite polarization was evident in both parties, albeit not symmetrically: Republicans had veered further to the right than Democrats had to the left at that point. In Congress, party-line voting had become the rule, and there was little ideological overlap between the parties. Gerrymandering contributed to the trend, but the same pattern prevailed in the Senate, which by definition is not gerrymandered. Centrist members, always vulnerable in their swing districts, were being washed away. But something has changed, which requires a reconsideration of the subject.įifteen years ago, when polarization appeared to be a fast-emerging issue in our politics, everyone agreed on some important trends: In Congress, party-line polarization - commonly called partisanship - had risen steadily since the mid-1970s. There is also a vast journalistic literature on it, to which I have contributed over the years. ![]() It has been with us for a long time, and there is a vast political-science literature on the subject. In some respects, of course, there is really not much new about polarization. The United States and other countries have been down this road in the past, and the results are never good. In rejecting compromise, Americans are rejecting governance. Constitution is to require compromise as a condition of governing. Only a minority in both parties (46% of Democrats, 44% of Republicans) told Pew they "like elected officials who make compromises with people they disagree with." The essence of the U.S. In the spring of 2018, a poll by the Pew Research Center registered yet another marker in the long series of milestones on the road to ungovernability: Democrats are now just as averse to compromise as Republicans. ![]() Just so: In our time, polarization has not only grown sharper but has even become its own justification. Asked if he thought it was fair to leave a motorist stranded, he replied, "It's not fair, but it's the norm nowadays. "I'm really not interested in doing business with that clientele," he later told the local TV news station, WLOS. He told McWade he would not accept her business, suggested (by one account) that she call the government for help, and drove away. In due course, Ken Shupe, of Shupee Max Towing, reached her, but as he began preparing to tow her car, he noticed a Bernie Sanders sticker on the bumper. The mechanic couldn't come, so he sent a friend from another company. In may 2016, a motorist named Cassy McWade had an accident on the interstate in western North Carolina and called her mechanic for a tow. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |