The overall share of Americans who express consistently conservative or consistently liberal opinions has doubled over the past two decades from 10% to 21%. And ideological thinking is now much more closely aligned with partisanship than in the past. As a result, ideological overlap between the two parties has diminished: Today, 92% of Republicans are to the right of the median Democrat, and 94% of Democrats are to the left of the median Republican.This is a fairly long and detailed study rather than a quick summary of polling.
Partisan animosity has increased substantially over the same period. In each party, the share with a highly negative view of the opposing party has more than doubled since 1994. Most of these intense partisans believe the opposing party’s policies “are so misguided that they threaten the nation’s well-being.”
Pew Research Center
Political Polarization in the American Public
2 comments:
But their litmus test questions for determining liberal vs. conservative are lame. Mostly social issues, little to nothing about imperialism, exceptionalism, economics, and absolutely nothing about the Bill of Rights.
Garbage in, garbage out.
So basically their study is saying that America is polarized on social issues.
Nice set of graphs, but where is the zero point, or any reference point? Haven't both parties moved to the right?
Post a Comment