1
0

How Identity, Not Issues, Explains the Partisan Divide


 invite response                
2018 Sep 20, 6:23pm   3,982 views  17 comments

by LastMan   ➕follow (0)   💰tip   ignore  

U.S. liberals and conservatives not only disagree on policy issues: they are also increasingly unwilling to live near each other, be friends, or get married to members of the other group. This rejection based on group membership is called affective polarization, meaning that our feelings (affect) are different towards members of our own group compared to outsiders. Growing intolerance in the U.S. is a puzzle because disagreeing about policies need not cause rampant mistrust and legislative gridlock. For example, countries with proportional electoral representation like Germany create functional coalitions across different ideologies.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-identity-not-issues-explains-the-partisan-divide/

Comments 1 - 17 of 17        Search these comments

1   NDrLoR   2018 Sep 20, 8:32pm  

LastMan says
they are also increasingly unwilling to live near each other, be friends, or get married to members of the other group.
Well that's the effect harping on "diversity" from the media/opinion makers/HR representatives in all the companies since probably the early 90's will have on a society. Diversity by definition obsesses on differences instead of commonalities, so it should be no surprise that people start separating themselves into like-minded groups, or as David Horowitz describes it in one of his books "society splintered into a galaxy of special interest groups all clamoring for their own special pleadings."
2   Patrick   2018 Sep 20, 9:09pm  

Diversity divides us.

The right answer is to emphasize unity as Americans, being proud to ignore race completely, and to de-emphasize diversity.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.


Martin Luther King Jr. (Who would now be called a racist for choosing to ignore race.)
3   MisdemeanorRebel   2018 Sep 20, 11:14pm  

Patrick says
The right answer is to emphasize unity as Americans, being proud to ignore race completely, and to de-emphasize diversity.


That's your toxic whiteness, your white privilege, speaking.

MLK Jr. is no longer cool with Democrats. He was an Uncle Tom.

If you ignore race, you're a racist. The real racism is White-only racism directed at POCs. As victims of White Oppression, POCs can never be racist. Even if they grew up in a Manhattan Condo to a multimillionaire Hollywood Actor and went to the most expensive Schools in the world.
4   HeadSet   2018 Sep 21, 7:21am  

U.S. liberals and conservatives not only disagree on policy issues: they are also increasingly unwilling to live near each other, be friends, or get married to members of the other group.

I do not recall where I was at the time, but I remember seeing town cemeteries where they had separate Republican and Democrat graveyards. These folks were buried in the late 1800's, so it seems the divide at that time persisted even after death.
5   Tenpoundbass   2018 Sep 21, 7:49am  

Yup If you import foreigners and encourage them remain foreigners at heart rather than Americans with skin in the game and something at stake in America.
You get the people we have today on the Left.
I know very few Immigrants, or first gen immigrant Americans today that fit the bill of Immigrants seeking American citizenship of the past.

In the end of the 2016 election cycle I made it clear their opinion doesn't count, they are for the destruction of America. They knew Hillary was crooked, they knew everything Trump was exposing was the truth. Yet they still wanted to vote for Hillary because they Hate America.

There are a difference in Patriotic immigrants, they love the American flag and see the game the Honkey Commie Liberals are running on America and it burns their asses as well.

LOL It was reported in Miami yesterday all of the typical Blue districts are polling in favor of Republicans. Nobody expected that, but Cubans are far more Patriotic than shithead PR's that will say anything a Commie Liberal tells them to say, for a fat Welfare check.

We need put all Cubans in our Immigration and Naturalization Services that makes the decisions. They will Vet the fuck out of the bitches coming over here just to suck off our Tax payers.
6   FortWayne   2018 Sep 21, 7:57am  

Diversity has provided us 0 benefit, and only division.

It works only if the newcomers integrate, not demand America changes to accommodate them
7   Heraclitusstudent   2018 Sep 21, 9:52am  

LastMan says
This rejection based on group membership is called...

... speciation.
8   FortWayne   2018 Sep 21, 11:27am  

There is nothing wrong with being legal migrant.

Problem is illegals. Lowers Americans wages, adds crime, grows welfare state. Remove birthright citizenship and add wall, problem solved.

And yes gay is wrong, and is a mental disorder. Strangely liberals champion it, probably because they too are mental.

Tim Aurora says
FortWayne says
It works only if the newcomers integrate, not demand America changes to accommodate them


If that is the case we should all start wearing buckskin dresses ( like American Indians ) and live in Tipi. My snide remark aside, in essence while to some extent correct, it is hard to understand what is American values besides free speech and adherence to the constitutions ( which has been amended multiple times to accommodate the changes) . Is homosexuality and abortion non American . I don't think so. Is being an environmentalist not correct? Or in a nation of immigrants , being an immigrant is now a pariah.

America has the right to stop any new immigration or make it based on some criterion ( such as education ) as long as those are not based on race, religion or skin color. Some immigrant classes are more integrate-able and education is one of the valid criterion. Other than th...
9   Heraclitusstudent   2018 Sep 21, 11:28am  

Tim Aurora says
it is hard to understand what is American values besides free speech and adherence to the constitutions

Enlightenment & liberal values:
- respect for human rights & dignity, not limited to free speech, equality of rights, equality of men and women, equality in front of the law, etc...
- liberal democracy
- separation of church and power
- separation of powers
- freedom of enterprise,
- free markets
- apple pie
- American shopping habits
- instant gratification
- etc...
10   LastMan   2018 Sep 21, 4:34pm  

Heraclitusstudent says
LastMan says
This rejection based on group membership is called...

... speciation.


Are Republicans and Democrats becoming different species? An interesting thesis.
11   Patrick   2018 Sep 21, 5:29pm  

We need a proportional representation system like Germany has.

Being effectively limited to only two parties makes it easy for our owners to keep us under control.
12   HeadSet   2018 Sep 21, 5:43pm  

Patrick says
We need a proportional representation system like Germany has.

Being effectively limited to only two parties makes it easy for our owners to keep us under control.


Trouble is, we pick our owners, and this is what the people want. Like the old proverb: "People do not really want freedom, they want a just master."

No reason that localities cannot vote in a plurality from their respective districts. Congress would then have the Rs and Ds from some districts, but then have Constitution Party, Socialist, Libertarian, LA Raza, Reform, Black Panther, Whig, Labor, Conservative, Liberal, and so on Reps from other districts.

Since we are dreaming, I would like to propose that we have no political parties. Every one runs as a party of one and the only concern is each politician's issues and leadership ability. Voters would actually need to know something about candidates before voting.
13   MisdemeanorRebel   2018 Sep 21, 6:04pm  

Heraclitusstudent says
Enlightenment & liberal values:
- respect for human rights & dignity, not limited to free speech, equality of rights, equality of men and women, equality in front of the law, etc...
- liberal democracy
- separation of church and power
- separation of powers
- freedom of enterprise,
- free markets
- apple pie
- American shopping habits
- instant gratification
- etc...

and
The Nation State
14   NDrLoR   2018 Sep 22, 8:26am  

Aphroman says
Keep their shitty people in their own shitty countries.
Sounds like a plan!
15   Shaman   2018 Sep 22, 8:32am  

jazz_music says
We can't talk to each other because we exist in 2 different worlds


Says the guy who is so partisan he can’t even imagine the other side let alone imagine how intelligent people could feel differently about the world than he does. No, everyone else is deplorables and jerkfaces who should probably be purged for the greater good.

Totalitarianism creeps up on this type.
16   LastMan   2018 Sep 22, 4:14pm  

Quigley says
Says the guy who is so partisan he can’t even imagine the other side let alone imagine how intelligent people could feel differently about the world than he does.


This is the point of the article. Your description fits a growing number of Democrats and Republicans, with both assuming the other side is more guilty or solely guilty.
17   MisdemeanorRebel   2018 Sep 22, 8:19pm  

"I don't understand how after they've been informed about the Truth of Progress - that racism can only be White, Women are free and independent actors until they get themselves into trouble in which case they're just girls and victims, they can stick to their Deploreable attitudes and remain post-Nationalist and skeptical of Socialism. Therefore, we must force them to be free!"

Please register to comment:

api   best comments   contact   latest images   memes   one year ago   random   suggestions