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Title: Don’t Count on Americans Hating Each Other Any Less Post-Midterms
Source:
Reason
URL Source: https://reason.com/archives/2018/11 ... ss-partisan-hate-post-midterms
Published: Nov 15, 2018
Author: J.D. Tuccille
Post Date: 2018-11-16 05:46:31 by Deckard
Keywords: None
Views: 1396
Comments: 15
To judge by the reactions to last week's mid-term elections, casting votes isn't the key to settling political tensions in the United States. As I write, Republicans are publicly accusing Democrats of manufacturing ballots to steal elected offices, while Democrats charge that Republicans somehow gerrymandered state borders to swipe victories in Senate races. It's as if the members of America's two dominant political tribes so despise each other that assuming some degree of decency on each other's part is out of the question. So hang on for a ride that's not getting smoother anytime soon. "Many Americans think people in the other party are ignorant, spiteful, evil and generally destroying the country," Kim Hart of Axios reports of a new poll conducted just before the election by SurveyMonkey. "About half of Democrats think Republicans are ignorant (54%) and spiteful (44%). Likewise, about half of Republicans think Democrats are ignorant (49%) and spiteful (54%). 21% of Democrats think Republicans are evil, and about the same share of Republicans (23%) think Democrats are evil." That would be disturbing enough in itself—liberal democracies don't function especially well when voters think they're opposing not bad policy, but rather the personification of all that is bad and wrong. But this is only the latest survey to discover such antipathy between America's political tribes. "Currently, 44% of Democrats and Democratic leaners have a very unfavorable opinion of the GOP," the Pew Research Center noted last year. "45% of Republicans and Republican leaners view the Democratic Party very unfavorably." That built on earlier Pew data finding that "More than half of Democrats (55%) say the Republican Party makes them 'afraid,' while 49% of Republicans say the same about the Democratic Party." And yes, it's getting worse. "The percentage of partisans who really seem to hate the other party has skyrocketed since the turn of the millennium," write political scientists Marc Hetherington and Jonathan Weiler of the University of North Carolina. After 2000, "the percentage of partisans with hate in their hearts rose with each election: from the 20s and 30s for Democrats and Republicans in 2008, to 48 and 50 percent, respectively, in 2016. Clearly, hating the opposite political party is no longer a fringe thing." Hethington and Weiler draw on data compiled by the American National Election Studies. So Americans are at daggers-drawn, and it appears that their mutual dislike is increasing in intensity. Making the situation more potentially intractable is the vast gulf between the tribes not just in terms of their partisan associations, but also what motivates them. Hetherington and Weiler write that people are largely divided between what they call "fixed" and "fluid" personalities that represent very different perceptions of the relative safety of the world in which we live, the importance of fixed rules, and the relative merits of self-reliance versus obedience to established order. There's more to it, of course, but the important point, they say, is that these personality types have increasingly sorted themselves along partisan lines, with "fixed" types going Republican and "fluid" types aligning as Democrats. Many people fall along a spectrum between fixed and fluid, but have felt compelled in recent years to pick one partisan tribe or the other. Possessing entirely different, and seemingly innate, worldviews, the two tribes now have little common ground over which to peacefully engage. In their analysis, Hetherington and Weiler delve into territory similar to that pioneered by social psychologist Jonathan Haidt with his moral foundations theory. Haidt believes that, in the American context, conservatives, progressives, and libertarians are largely divided by the extent to which they value six innate moral foundations that define what they consider important and good. Even the way they understand the meaning of such values as "fairness" are at odds, complicating the task of finding a shared language for discussion and making debates challenging because people have very different ideas of what makes for desirable outcomes. Confused? Let's just say that the political tribes' brains work differently, and they're scared and baffled by what makes their opponents tick. These differences have always existed, but not so clearly aligned with partisan identity, and not usually when the stakes were so high as they are now in political contests. I'll argue—again—that in a society in which everything is politicized, and in which winning an election means gaining control of lawmaking, licensing authority, and regulatory apparatus that can be and frequently are used to punish political enemies, nobody can afford to lose. Lifestyle and occupations are now closely aligned with political identity—a "starkly divided world of latte-sipping liberals and bird-hunting conservatives," as Daniel DellaPosta, Yongren Shi, and Michael Macy of Cornell University wrote in a paper published in 2015 in the American Journal of Sociology. That means opponents' hobbies and occupations can be targeted for destruction-by-government without overtly running afoul of protections for what they believe and how they vote (although, emboldened by the political environment, politicians are going to that extreme, too). If the tribes are unable to understand each other's worldviews or values, it's difficult to see how they settle their differences and learn to deescalate the country's cycle of political conflict. "If Americans are this convinced that the other side isn't just wrong, but dumb and evil, they'll never be able to find enough common ground to solve real problems," Axios's Kim Hart remarked in her piece on partisan animosity. Maybe there isn't much room for common ground. Perhaps the only path forward is to decentralize power to make it easier for people to live the way they want without being subject to the rule of the hated foe. To the extent possible, we should decentralize power and declaw the government so that people don't have to worry what the enemy has in store for them.Or, we could just wait to see what a growing wave of tribal loathing does to the country.
Baffled by and fearful of each other, the political tribes remain consumed by loathing and dedicated to total victory.
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#1. To: Deckard (#0)
It is a fact that democrats are doing that. THey are pieces of shit. A coalition of the mentally ill and evil You have the faggots who couldn't get any pussy so they turn to men. Mentally ill. You have the faggots who cut their dicks off to pretend they are a woman. Mentally ill rejects. You have a crazy woman who thinks she is a indian. You have mass murderers who think it is their duty to kill children. Democrats are evil and really stupid. Fuck them. There will never be any reconciliation. You don't embrace sicko murderers.
Democrats are evil and really stupid. Fuck them. There will never be any reconciliation. You don't embrace sicko murderers. Thank you for so exquisitely demonstrating the point of the article.
Government is in the last resort the employment of armed men, of policemen, gendarmes, soldiers, prison guards, and hangmen. F*** you Deckard for spinning the comments you asshole. I gave specific reasons like murder . Hey as long as it for drugs you love them right Democrat sucker. You remind me of Winston burn the papers.
Like Malcolm X said" that which you do not hate you will tolerate". That describes you to a t. You don't hate evil so you tolerate it and in fact embrace it. Examples drug use and now Democrats murdering children since you took that out of my quote.
I will not denounce family, friends or co-workers simply because they are democrats - you must be a real hoot at family get-togethers. That's the difference between me and you - I judge people as individuals. Partisan automatons like you condemn everyone for simply belonging to a different political tribe. You (along with that raving lunatic GrandIsland) are consumed with constant hatred .
Government is in the last resort the employment of armed men, of policemen, gendarmes, soldiers, prison guards, and hangmen. I spun nothing you lunatic. You remind me of Winston burn the papers. Project much? You're the one shoving articles that are anathema to the "Party" down the memory hole.
Government is in the last resort the employment of armed men, of policemen, gendarmes, soldiers, prison guards, and hangmen. Democrats ARE ignorant. Look where they get their "news" -- the biased MSM, schools, Hollywood, and late-night comedians. Talk to one. They're ignorant.
Our family was raised rights. There are literally no democrats in our extended family. None nada zero. There are some neighbors though. You are wishy washy on moral issues.
No wishy washy Deckard. Everyone who votes for a modern day democrat is voting to allowing human beings to be murderered by their parents. So their fruits are known. 99.9 percent of democrats are for murder. So they all suck. Every one of them. The pro abortion Collins and Murkowski or however you spell her name are pieces of shit too. You are using the word partisan as having morals.
I can't speak for Grandisland. But I and probably him too. We just hate evil. I hate evil. I hate wrong. I want right. I use abortion a lot as you know. Because it is a simple moral test. If you are for murdering babies you are a piece of shit. All democrats in office with .01 percent exception are for abortion. So they are all evil. You on the other hand wishy washy. Luke warm. You are only passionate about cops and drugs.
As you see it.
Government is in the last resort the employment of armed men, of policemen, gendarmes, soldiers, prison guards, and hangmen. There are absolute Rights and Wrongs dickwad.
We are too divided and there is no middle ground. One side must defeat the other and the defeated side capitulate. Personally I see a civil war brewing with no way to stop it. When one side abides by the law and the other side does not care about the law or constitution its just a matter of time before something bad causes the good side to use the same tactics which will turn into war for the control of the government. I guess demographics could just cause the good side to give up and allow the far far far left rule until they collapse this once great nation. Then the enemies from out side US attack and wipe America off the map. Everything can be laid at the feat of the MSM and judicial system. Both infiltrated by far far far left evil bastards. In the end we will get what we deserve.
Really good commenT Love If you ... don't use exclamation points --- you should't be typeing ! Commas - semicolons - question marks are for girlie boys !
It may come to a civil war, yes. If one looks at civil wars over the last 2000 years or so in the West, there is a clearly discernible outcome, one which neither the current Democrat tribe NOR the current Republican tribe would like at all. If there were a civil war in America, it would almost certainly follow the model, and the outcome can be predicted.
Many Americans think people in the other party are ignorant, spiteful, evil and generally destroying the country,"
#2. To: A K A Stone (#1)
THey are pieces of shit. A coalition of the mentally ill and evil
“Truth is treason in the empire of lies.” - Ron Paul
The essential feature of government is the enforcement of its decrees by beating, killing, and imprisoning.
Those who are asking for more government interference are asking ultimately for more compulsion and less freedom.
#3. To: Deckard (#2)
#4. To: Deckard (#2)
#5. To: A K A Stone (#4)
“Truth is treason in the empire of lies.” - Ron Paul
The essential feature of government is the enforcement of its decrees by beating, killing, and imprisoning.
Those who are asking for more government interference are asking ultimately for more compulsion and less freedom.
#6. To: A K A Stone (#3)
F*** you Deckard for spinning the comments you asshole.
“Truth is treason in the empire of lies.” - Ron Paul
The essential feature of government is the enforcement of its decrees by beating, killing, and imprisoning.
Those who are asking for more government interference are asking ultimately for more compulsion and less freedom.
#7. To: Deckard (#0)
Likewise, about half of Republicans think Democrats are ignorant (49%)
#8. To: Deckard (#5)
I will not denounce family, friends or co-workers simply because they are democrats - you must be a real hoot at family get-togethers.
#9. To: Deckard (#5)
I judge people as individuals. Partisan automatons like you condemn everyone for simply belonging to a different political tribe.
#10. To: Deckard (#5)
ou (along with that raving lunatic GrandIsland) are consumed with constant hatred .
#11. To: A K A Stone (#10)
I want right.
“Truth is treason in the empire of lies.” - Ron Paul
The essential feature of government is the enforcement of its decrees by beating, killing, and imprisoning.
Those who are asking for more government interference are asking ultimately for more compulsion and less freedom.
#12. To: Deckard (#11)
#13. To: Deckard (#0)
#14. To: misterwhite (#7)
boris
#15. To: Justified (#13)
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