On election nights, the nation is sorted neatly into two colors: red and blue. But that binary approach doesn’t do a great job of capturing the beliefs and attitudes of 300-plus million people. There are a lot of nuances out there, as described in the NBC News County to County project.
This week the Pew Research Center released its latest typology of American political views — nine groups of voters that show at least some of the more refined shades of red, blue and purple in the current political environment. The groups were built out of a survey asking a series of questions on politics and policy.
The numbers illustrate a few important points about American politics in 2021. First, there are some issues are sharply define liberals and conservatives, litmus tests for each side of the spectrum. But second, you don’t have to dig too far into the numbers to find the issues that show the internal fissures with the nation’s two major political parties. CONTINUED
Dante Chinni, NBC News
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