Posted on 06/24/2019 11:27:19 PM PDT by ransomnote
A new study shows Americans have little understanding of their political adversaries—and education doesn’t help.
Americans often lament the rise of “extreme partisanship,” but this is a poor description of political reality: Far from increasing, Americans’ attachment to their political parties has considerably weakened over the past years. Liberals no longer strongly identify with the Democratic Party and conservatives no longer strongly identify with the Republican Party.
What is corroding American politics is, specifically, negative partisanship: Although most liberals feel conflicted about the Democratic Party, they really hate the Republican Party. And even though most conservatives feel conflicted about the Republican Party, they really hate the Democratic Party.
America’s political divisions are driven by hatred of an out-group rather than love of the in-group. The question is: Why?
A new study, called “The Perception Gap,” helps provide an answer. More in Common, an advocacy organization devoted to countering extremism that previously published a viral report on America’s “hidden tribes,” set out to understand how political partisans see each other. Researchers asked Democrats to guess how Republicans would answer a range of political questions—and vice versa. (The survey was conducted among a sample of 2,100 U.S. adults the week immediately following the 2018 midterm elections.) What they found is fascinating: Americans’ mental image of the “other side” is a caricature.
According to the Democratic caricature, most Republicans stridently oppose immigration, hold deeply prejudiced views about religious minorities, and are blind to the existence of racism or sexism. Asked to guess what share of Republicans believe that immigration can strengthen America so long as it is “properly controlled,” for example, Democrats estimated about half; actually, nearly nine in 10 agreed with this sentiment.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
I understand Democrats just fine. They are people who can and will commit mass murder then virtue signal about it, if given the opportunity.
“Yascha Mounk: ‘How Did I Celebrate Becoming American? Protesting Trump”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/24/opinion/sunday/the-best-time-to-become-an-american-is-now.html
Under normal circumstances, people like him would be considered spies, most likely.
Bunk. I could infiltrate and fool Democrat Underground members much easier and effectively they they could sneak on to Free Republic and pretend to be a conservative. Conservatives understand actual reality BETTER!
There is some value in anything.
In this case the study being discussed, loaded as it is with unconsidered value judgments, still works well as an attitude survey, and has one very interesting result, in that the more educated a Democrat is, the more he misunderstands Republicans.
This makes sense. In large part your current split is about the development of social castes. The haut-bourgeois caste is a tight social bubble held together essentially by the ideological glue, the social equivalent of a religion, of your university system. They are the most propagandized and the most taboo-bound people in the US, and this study has results that reflect that.
Could it be as simple as the difference between self-control and government control?
In order to defeat an enemy, you must understand the enemy.
Much of this website is devoted to that endeavor.
They claim their aim is to de-polarize the political scene. Don't know if it's above board, or another leftist scheme.
I think the article is fair. What the author fails to understand tho is there is a new political paradigm that no one is looking at. The paradigm changes the two party system into a three party system. The Socialists, the Conservatives and the Establishment. The Establishment is the combination of Liberal Republicans and Democrats who think the left is nuts, but don’t want to be labeled as Republican.
All we need to do is look at the last three years and who has done what. The Establishment is in fact the Deep State and it appears they work for the highest bidder. And I am willing to bet their paymaster is the Clinton Foundation.
Having lived among them my entire life I understand Rat voters perfectly.
I don’t understand why communists would ever want to live in this country! If they truly believe the idiocy they espouse they would be on the next boat to Cuba...or wherever.
The Democrats have been doing this for decades. It’s that the Right have had enough that’s got everyone’s balls in an uproar.
In most things, yes.
I would say, look for facts. If there aren't any facts in an article, you can dismiss it. If you take issue with what are presented as facts, you have an argument - maybe a good one - against the article. But if there are some facts that seem to be true - and better still, are true - then you have to take the article more seriously.
You can't expect anything in the Atlantic to come without a liberal spin. Nothing in politics comes without some kind of political spin nowadays. And Yascha Mounk has real problems with Trump and with democracy. But if you see beyond the surface affectations he does have a point: most members of each party don't perceive the adherents of the other party in the way that the supporters of that party perceive themselves.
According to the Democratic caricature, most Republicans stridently oppose immigration, hold deeply prejudiced views about religious minorities, and are blind to the existence of racism or sexism. Asked to guess what share of Republicans believe that immigration can strengthen America so long as it is “properly controlled,” for example, Democrats estimated about half; actually, nearly nine in 10 agreed with this sentiment. Democrats also estimated that four in 10 Republicans believe that “many Muslims are good Americans,” and that only half recognize that “racism still exists in America.” In reality, those figures were two-thirds and four in five.
Unsurprisingly, Republicans are also prone to caricature Democrats. For example, Republicans approximated that only about half of Democrats are “proud to be American” despite the country’s problems. Actually, more than four in five Democrats said they are. Similarly, Republicans guessed that fewer than four in 10 Democrats reject the idea of open borders. Actually, seven in 10 said they do.
That may be a good place to start. Instead of attacking Mounk and not reading his article and basically proving his point for him, one might want to discuss whether one believes that no (or hardly any) Democrats are proud of the country or that no (or hardly any) Muslims are good Americans and how this squares with the self-perception of those groups and how the various perceptions reflect or don't reflect reality.
There isn't enough money to go around. When very conservative states keep sending figures like Mitt Romney or John McCain or Lindsey Graham to the Senate, it can't be because every voter was bribed or because every Senator is literally paid off when the come to Washington. Especially not by an organization that didn't exist when they got there.
People who've been in Washington politics a long time come to think alike, behave in similar ways, and have some common interests, even if they are the opposite sides. If you're in Congress, you can't be agitating to tear the place down everyday. That won't make you an effective representative. So you learn Washington ways and adopt Washington attitudes.
And on top of that issues change. If you were a fiery conservative thirty years ago and changed little over the years, you might come to be seen as an Establishment swamp creature because the issues that inspired you back then aren't inspiring conservatives today. All that talk about tearing down trade barriers comes to look Establishment and globalist, so even if you didn't change (and everybody does change) you'd be regarded with suspicion.
Blithering nonsense. The 2 political parties in the US understand each other perfectly. They are simply in complete, unequivocal disagreement. Democrats want absolute control of society by government they absolutely control. Republicans want a little bit of control. The goals of the parties are mutually exclusive.
The only thing one needs to understand about Democrats is you cannot trust them at all
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Understatement of the year.
I beg to differ. Liberalism is the political philosophy of two-year olds. It amounts to emotion-based decision making (I WANT WHAT I WANT WHEN I WANT IT!!!). Conservatism is the political philosophy of wise adults (reason- and experience-based decision making). Just because two-year olds do not understand adults, does not mean adults do not understand two-year olds...
Thanks ransomnote. The Partisan Media Shills at The Atlantic are starting to panic.
Try and engage any Democrat these days in a discussion of any Trump policy.
They’ll glare at you and scream “He’s Hitler!”
The discussion pretty much ends right there. So what’s left to understand?
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