The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On some polarizing issues, far more are in center than at poles.
It’s almost hard to remember now, but back in the early pandemic two years ago, Americans had a moment of unity. Even Congress, fresh off a bitter fight over impeachment, managed to get together to pump trillions into a faltering economy as jobs disappeared overnight.
Neighbors sewed masks for neighbors; volunteers scrounged for hospital PPE; millions stayed home to keep others safe. Big bipartisan majorities agreed on strict measures to “flatten the curve.” But the arc of goodwill soon bent toward dysfunction, political fights erupted over masks and vaccines, and by last summer, according to Pew, Americans still overwhelmingly agreed on one thing: America was divided.
This is true but only in a narrow sense. America’s political parties are extremely divided, maybe even historically so. But Americans as a whole mostly just aren’t that engaged in politics, let alone to such an extent that they’re bickering with neighbors about the CARES Act. Those tribal hyperpartisans you see on social media, cable news, Op-Ed pages? They’re a small minority of the U.S. population. And even partisan divides — Republicans disliking Democrats and vice versa — are greatly exaggerated in the minds of partisans themselves.
It’s true that Democrats and Republicans have for years reported growing animosity toward members of the other party, and especially the other party’s politicians. In tandem with this, though, fewer and fewer people actually associate themselves with political parties at all, even if they consistently lean in one direction or another at the ballot box. A near-record proportion of American adults identified as independents when Gallup last measured this year — more people than identified as either Republicans or Democrats.
So the increasing polarization of Americans by party affiliation is occurring among a decreasing number of people. The rise of independents, and the decline of each party’s base, is a “probable contributing factor” in party polarization, Gallup senior editor Jeffrey M. Jones wrote. (This doesn’t mean independents are free of partisanship: Independents who lean Democrat or Republican are almost as likely as partisans to have an unfavorable view of the other party, according to Pew.)
On the other hand, independents, however they lean, are more likely to have a poxon-both-your-houses attitude toward the parties than party members are.) Most users reported themselves to be “worn out” by politics.
Disentangling party affiliation from actual issues, moreover, many of the things that supposedly divide Americans are actually areas of widespread consensus. Americans’ well-publicized fights over vaccines and masks, for example obscure the large majorities that report themselves fully vaccinated (73%, per the Kaiser Family Foundation’s latest); or that say they still wear of Americans, but “the people masks outside the home (68%, who are most directly involved per Gallup). in the processes that shape
On some of America’s most actual policy outcomes are the polarizing issues, far more people who are most divided,” Americans are in the center said Andrew Seligsohn, presithan at the poles: Majorities dent of the nonprofit research believe abortion should be legal firm Public Agenda. within limits, and they think To the extent partisanship is that police treat Black people more a phenomenon of elites less fairly than white people, than of average voters, those but overwhelmingly don’t supare the very elites who refuse port defunding the police. to cooperate with one another
So why, when they actually to deliver policy outcomes agree on so much, do partisans most Americans want. report such dislike for the other To say most Americans side? The answer may, in part, aren’t as polarized as they be found in the fact that we seem is not to say all is right overestimate the vehemence of with American democracy — our ostensible opponents. and indeed, this very unrep
Victoria Parker, a political resentativeness of the politipsychology researcher who cal class contributes to declinhas studied the phenomenon ing trust in the system overall. of “false polarization,” told Most Americans voted for Presme that partly because the ident Joe Biden in 2020 and extremes of left or right are say he won the election legitiwhat tend to make the news mately, but as we saw on Jan. (or trend on social media), 6, 2021, a violent minority of a “that gives people the false minority can threaten the very impression that those characfoundations of our democracy. terizations are representative But we should still take heart of either group.” in the fact that, with all its
To take perhaps the most flaws, this is a democracy. The dramatic example of partisan majority matters. Even with misperceptions, a web-based the structural obstacles to betstudy by the Stanford Polarter representation, it remains ization and Social Change Lab easier to change leadership suggests that Democrats and than to change the raw mateRepublicans overestimate one rial of the citizenry. another’s support for political violence.
But even where partisanship is “false,” the effects can be real. They may be the minority