… The politics of economic self-interest that underpinned the New Deal era have been supplanted by “expressive partisanship,” a form of “affective polarization,” as political scientists put it.
What does this mean?
“A distinctly social type of polarization that includes political prejudice, anger, enthusiasm, and activism” has superseded political conflict over issues, Lilliana Mason of the University of Maryland, argues in her new book, “Uncivil Agreement”: CONT.
Thomas B. Edsall, New York Times