This is a great essay by Matt Yglesias.
https://www.slowboring.com/p/is-asymmetrical-polarization-real
Edit: Quoted here.
I wanted to post it in an existing thread because that way I could just post the link without feeling like I should comment a bunch on it, but I don't see a thread that's apt, so I'll start this new one.
On the one hand, I think it's generally pretty accepted that the country has moved politically to the left in recent decades (and centuries). Common views on race, gay rights, and so on held today, even by conservatives, would have been super far left a few decades ago. Both parties have moved to the left on many (probably most, though not all) issues. If both parties have generally moved left, that means Republicans have moved toward the center while Democrats have moved away from the center. From that angle, it seems that Democrats are the ones driving greater polarization.
But that goes against the other commonly held view that it's the Republicans who've recently become more radicalized, what with QAnon and Trump and Charlottesville and other assorted craziness. Oh, and trying to overthrow the government. These are not centrist phenomena.
So what gives? Read the essay.
https://www.slowboring.com/p/is-asymmetrical-polarization-real
Edit: Quoted here.
I wanted to post it in an existing thread because that way I could just post the link without feeling like I should comment a bunch on it, but I don't see a thread that's apt, so I'll start this new one.
On the one hand, I think it's generally pretty accepted that the country has moved politically to the left in recent decades (and centuries). Common views on race, gay rights, and so on held today, even by conservatives, would have been super far left a few decades ago. Both parties have moved to the left on many (probably most, though not all) issues. If both parties have generally moved left, that means Republicans have moved toward the center while Democrats have moved away from the center. From that angle, it seems that Democrats are the ones driving greater polarization.
But that goes against the other commonly held view that it's the Republicans who've recently become more radicalized, what with QAnon and Trump and Charlottesville and other assorted craziness. Oh, and trying to overthrow the government. These are not centrist phenomena.
So what gives? Read the essay.
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