Polarization of America

[bobabode]

Originally Posted by Wasillaguy

Well there's your problem right there. Got yourself a flawed premise. Makin' your whole rig pull to the right.
I'm sure one of these boys got a perfectly good used premise they'll sell ya that pulls hard to the left, right into oncoming traffic.

Well, that was cute.

[whell]

Originally Posted by bobabode

That's Whell. Hell, I'd need a chest waders to go through this convoluted load of crap that he's advancing here.

Originally Posted by bobabode

It was the neocons that have been dragging your party to the right. The 'baggers are simply convenient idiots dreamt up by those maniacs over at the Heritage Foundation. Your whole premise is flawed Mike.

I'm not "advancing" anything. I'm posting the results of a Pew study. You're apparently rejecting Pew's findings and data out of hand so you can conveniently cling to a flawed narrative.

While the ’baggers may be a relatively recent influence on the direction of the GOP, do you deny Pew's findings that the hard left has been influencing the Dems for quite some time?

[merrylander]

Hard left relative to what? The soi disent left here is at best middle of the road elsewhere in the world.

[whell]

Originally Posted by merrylander

Hard left relative to what? The soi disent left here is at best middle of the road elsewhere in the world.

From post 4 in this thread, pulled from the Pew study:

Not surprisingly, the report also says that “the rise of ideological uniformity has been much more pronounced among” political activists on the left and right. “Today, almost four-in-ten (38 percent) politically engaged Democrats are consistent liberals, up from just eight percent in 1994…” Meanwhile, 33 percent of consistent conservatives almost always voice conservative opinions, “up from 23 percent in the midst of the 1994 ‘Republican Revolution,’” said Pew.

In other words, you can continue to play the "blame the other guys" game, but the data suggests that while polarization on the right is a more recent phenomenon, the right still hasn't caught up with the level of polarization that exists on the left.

[mpholland]

Originally Posted by whell

From post 4 in this thread, pulled from the Pew study:

Not surprisingly, the report also says that “the rise of ideological uniformity has been much more pronounced among” political activists on the left and right. “Today, almost four-in-ten (38 percent) politically engaged Democrats are consistent liberals, up from just eight percent in 1994…” Meanwhile, 33 percent of consistent conservatives almost always voice conservative opinions, “up from 23 percent in the midst of the 1994 ‘Republican Revolution,’” said Pew.

In other words, you can continue to play the "blame the other guys" game, but the data suggests that while polarization on the right is a more recent phenomenon, the right still hasn't caught up with the level of polarization that exists on the left.

Seems to me that could easily be attributed to the fact that there is a lot more room to move left than right.

[Tom Joad]

Originally Posted by merrylander

Hard left relative to what? The soi disent left here is at best middle of the road elsewhere in the world.

Exactly.

That's why we are the only first world country that doesn't have universal single payer health care. Until we do, this nation is a far right hellhole as far as I am concerned.

[bobabode]

Originally Posted by whell

From post 4 in this thread, pulled from the Pew study:

Not surprisingly, the report also says that “the rise of ideological uniformity has been much more pronounced among” political activists on the left and right. “Today, almost four-in-ten (38 percent) politically engaged Democrats are consistent liberals, up from just eight percent in 1994…” Meanwhile, 33 percent of consistent conservatives almost always voice conservative opinions, “up from 23 percent in the midst of the 1994 ‘Republican Revolution,’” said Pew.

In other words, you can continue to play the "blame the other guys" game, but the data suggests that while polarization on the right is a more recent phenomenon, the right still hasn't caught up with the level of polarization that exists on the left.

You're extrapolating from an artificial cut off in '94. I wonder how those numbers would look pushed back to say 1980?

[whell]

Originally Posted by bobabode

You're extrapolating from an artificial cut off in '94. I wonder how those numbers would look pushed back to say 1980?

I'm not extrapolating anything. It's a quote from the Pew study, and their data only goes back that far.

Here's an interesting interactive showing how the divide has increased over the years. It appears, again, that the extreme polarization for both sides is a relatively recent phenomenon.

http://www.people-press.org/2014/06/...y/#interactive

As far as 1980, the year of the Reagan Democrat, could have been fueled as much by a reaction to the failure of Carter as the appeal of Reagan. But that shift was happening in the political middle, not at the political extremes.

[whell]

Originally Posted by mpholland

Seems to me that could easily be attributed to the fact that there is a lot more room to move left than right.

Except that's not what Pew is finding.

[mpholland]

Originally Posted by whell

Except that's not what Pew is finding.

I was replying to your comment:

"...the data suggests that while polarization on the right is a more recent phenomenon, the right still hasn't caught up with the level of polarization that exists on the left."

The political "center" is not a true center. It is farther "right" in this country. The right will never catch up to the left in polarization. There isn't room. The right leaning centrist can only go so far before becoming a conservative. The left leaning centrist can go a long way before being considered liberal. I think PEW probably cuts their definition of liberal way before soshulist or communist.