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Congressional divide (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter bostonfred
- Start date
The Commish
Footballguy
Wow
What’s the primary driver in the polarization?..
party
change in demographics
change in peoples beliefs
migration - people moving from red to blue or the opposite
I’m probably missing a few items but this is what immediately came to mind. Interested in what others think.
Ilov80s
Footballguy
A little info here
https://www.people-press.org/2014/06/12/political-polarization-in-the-american-public/
Basically says most Americans are moderate but they aren't very vocal in politics. The people on the edges are rancorous, passionate and very loud.
SaintsInDome2006
Footballguy
I saw a very similar graphic about a study of public divided ideology over time a while back. Wish I had posted/saved it somewhere. But yeah, that's what's going on.
However, the middle while narrower is also more elastic, causing swings, between R/D, in that same graphic you just posted.
Ilov80s
Footballguy
Probably. Those are the ones donating money, sending emails/letters and are certain to vote.
Ilov80s
Footballguy
Also I think the change in media plays a huge role. Now people can find news media that just supports and enflames their own political prejudices without ever being challenged. People used to get most of their news from ABC, NBC, CBS and well run journalistic newspapers/radio. Now people have so many partisan options and most of the big outlets have sacrificed journalism for better profit margins.
Last edited by a moderator:
The Commish
Footballguy
Thanks. I figured something was missing but I agree that media has played a part in the polarization.
The lobbist play a part but they’ve been around long before the polarization so I believe it’s other factors. Personally, I think media, the 2 parties and change in people’s are the main contributors...
Ilov80s
Footballguy
Yep so I have to wonder if there is also any level of moral degradation and more capitalistic POVs. Are lobbyists and Congress Men/Women more willing to sacrifice principles for profit than they were in the past?
The Commish
Footballguy
They've been around, sure. They are also contributing at all time highs. There's also no question that parts of the electorate believe it's dems vs repubs.
Ilov80s
Footballguy
Yep, the ~20% who are strong right and the ~20% who are strong left don’t just disagree, they think the policies of the other side are destroying the country.
The Commish
Footballguy
It would be an interesting exercise to put a layover chart on top of the ones in those links showing the amount of time politicians spend campaigning and looking for donations.
Juxtatarot
Footballguy
Another factor is in the past few people considered themselves liberal, even in the Democratic Party. That’s been changing over time.
The Commish
Footballguy
Is this because of ideal shifts or definition of words though? My ideals haven't changed all that much but based on the everyday use of the word "conservative", there's not a chance I'd fit that bill. That wasn't true just 10 years ago.
It is an interesting graphic, but one could make the argument that our current era actually is more "normal", and the real outlier was the New Deal Era, where you had a Democratic Party that consisted of Northern liberals and Southern conservatives, and a GOP made up of Northern liberals and Western conservatives. Eventually those coalitions proved unstable, as the liberals were all consolidated in the Democratic Party and the conservatives in the GOP.
Juxtatarot
Footballguy
That one guy
Footballguy
Congressional mitosis
The Commish
Footballguy
I'd also like to see the areas that have been heavily gerrymandered laid over those charts too.
Right now this would be a minimum of 40 states and probably 45 or so. What’s your point?
The Commish
Footballguy
That I'd want to see how gerrymandering frequency corresponded with the unwillingness to compromise.
abbottjamesr
Footballguy
I would be interesting to see the population density of the districts some how represented on the chart. I have a theory that much of the divide is rural vs urban. People in NYC live such different lives then those in North Dakota that its not hard to imagine that how they vote would be drastically different as well.
Ilov80s
Footballguy
That one guy
Footballguy
Correlative or causational?
CNN was founded in 1980 and Fox News in 1996. Obviously there are other players in this game, but I view these 2 as the biggest. The divide in the graphic begins in the early 80s and is solidified in the mid 90s. 24-hour news shifted the focus from local to national and then the emergence of opinion talk shows shifted the focus from journalistic news to bias confirmation viewing. The internet and social media has simply made access to and consumption of this kind of information quicker and easier.
I’m not gonna claim 24-hour news as the sole reason the divide occurred, but certainly a major factor
CNN was founded in 1980 and Fox News in 1996. Obviously there are other players in this game, but I view these 2 as the biggest. The divide in the graphic begins in the early 80s and is solidified in the mid 90s. 24-hour news shifted the focus from local to national and then the emergence of opinion talk shows shifted the focus from journalistic news to bias confirmation viewing. The internet and social media has simply made access to and consumption of this kind of information quicker and easier.
I’m not gonna claim 24-hour news as the sole reason the divide occurred, but certainly a major factor
The Commish
Footballguy
There's no question that our "news media" is a huge player in this. Have you ever paid attention to all the people whining about various echo chambers and the like? They are also the ones that quote fox news, cnn, msnbc frequently as their goto sources. FFS, they even extrapolate perceived "importance" of issues based on how the news media is covering issues. It happens here all the time.
