A political identity–being a liberal or Democrat (a “D”) versus being a conservative or Republican (an “R”)–has become viscerally more important to more Americans, reaching partisan intensities not seen for at least a century and not seen elsewhere in the western world. R’s and D’s have increasingly and heatedly differed on public issues and on private ones as well, such as who to marry, who to befriend, where to live, what to buy, and the nature of faith. It is the era of the great polarization.
My previous post, Part I, described how so many Americans became so divided over the last 40 or so years. In this post, I try to explain why, evaluate the consequences, and consider what might be done. The short answer to why is that the nation’s political leaders first sorted themselves into separate and increasingly well-defined camps. Politically-attuned Americans could more clearly see where the parties stood on their big concerns, first race and then later “culture war” arguments. Different sorts of people became D’s or R’s and identifying as a D or R made people different. Peer influences, mass media, and social media did not create polarization, but accelerated it, particularly raising the emotional heat. In several ways, these forces all fed one another. One can argue that by now the fervor of the rank and file drives leaders to further polarize. CONTINUED
Claude Fischer, UC Berkeley
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