Posted by 
I have previously touched on this topic in my post of September 23. There I wrote: “From the outset we should recognize that we are not living in the most contentious period in American history. That dubious honor belongs to the three decades prior to and the decade following the American Civil War. …the most recent period of turmoil was the 1960s, when the confluence of the Civil Rights struggle, the Vietnam War and the generational battle between Hippies and the Silent Majority led to campus takeovers, bombings, murder, riots, demonstrations, police brutality, the National Guard shooting students, and a strong feeling by many that the country was falling apart. Our current season of anger and division has not yet reached that level of discontent and fear.”
Nevertheless, we are increasingly divided as a polity. A 2017 Pew Foundation Study contains a wealth of information on the increasing partisan divide in America.
First, as shown in the chart below, the divide over policy issues is most correlated to political party, not race, gender, age, religious attendance, or education. In other words, the differences between Republicans and Democrats is greater than the difference between whites and non-whites or boomers and voters under the age of 55.
Second, these divides have been increasing. The chart below shows how political party beliefs have diverged in the last 25 years. For example, in 1994 around 30% of Democrats and Republicans agreed with the statement that “Stricter environmental laws and regulations cost too many jobs and hurt the economy.” By 2017, only 20% of Democrats agreed with that statement and 58% of Republicans agreed. Another startling shift is attitudes toward immigrants. In 1994, around 63% of democrats and Republicans agreed “that immigrants today are a burden on our country because they take our jobs, housing and health care. Interestingly, Republican agreement with that statement fell to 44% in 2017; but Democratic agreement plunged to 12%.
Third, the partisan gap in terms of a president’s approval has reached an all-time high; the difference in approval ratings between Republicans and Democrats for President Trump is 80%, while the difference for President Nixon was 34% (see chart below).
Fourth, the partisan divide has been marked by an increasing sense of partisan antipathy directed to those on the other side of the partisan divide (see chart below). Between 1994 and 2017 the percentage of Republicans who had a very unfavorable view of the Democratic Party rose from 17% to 45%, while the percentage of Democrats who had a very unfavorable view of the Republican party rose from 16% to 44%. To my mind what is important here, is not the rise of unfavorable views of the competing party but how few held very unfavorable views of the opposing party 25 years ago. In 1994, the percentage of Republicans who had a very unfavorable view of the Democratic Party was 17% (compared to 45% today), while the percentage of Democrats who held very unfavorable views of the Republican Party was 16% (compared to 44% today).
My next post will try to explain how we got here and offer some suggestions as to how we can begin to bridge our differences.
Your data is consistent with what I have observed in my bubble. In my mind, the key question is why has this happened, and what can be done about to make the nation more united as most seem to want? Maybe a future article will speak to that? I have an opinion, as I am sure most do, but I would like to hear from people who have studied the top in depth. One thing I am sure is not going to make us more united is people who say, “we won the election” now get over it. Another non-starter is telling people if they don’t like it leave the country.
Working on it. not surprisingly it’s complicated