I'm an elected democratic PCO of my voting precinct in Seattle. I'm a bipartisan wing democrat, not a progressive. I do vote across party lines when the other party's candidate matches my policy preferences best. This enrages party stalwarts, but I know that many voters in my precinct are not progressives as I review the precinct-level election results. I really encourage people to run for PCO in either party and represent your neighbors because this is an election year for PCOs and you need to register during filing week in your county. The election happens in the Primary, not the General. You'll take office in the New Year. It happens every even year. Across the country where once these PCO positions were competitively filled, they're now 80-85% vacant in both parties. This, in my opinion, is where the polarization comes from. I certainly witness it at my 36th LD Democrats meetings and endorsements. They'd vote communist if they could. Mark your calendar to run this year. Just check your County Elections Office for filing week and do it. There are very few moderate PCOs and we can really do something about that. I would bet that most journalists that write about polarization, don't even know that PCOs exist, so they've most likely never been one or perhaps haven't even attended a partisan meeting in their Legislative District to get a feel for the fringe people running the show in both parties. People call themselves Democrats and Republicans, but they don't look under the hood very often.
Once again, Yascha demonstrates that he understands America better than professional commentators. I thought that his interview with Edward Luce should have been titled “Thoughtful German Scholar Encounters Dogmatic and Predictable British Pundit.” The two foreign accents made it more amusing. This essay is the perfect follow up with “A new majority is there for the taking. But because of the abject failure of America’s political leaders to understand the moment, it will, at least for the next four years, continue to lie fallow.”
Make a list of five things that make up your identity. It probably doesn’t include political party. Every year we see articles telling us how to prepare for political fighting at holiday gatherings. Maybe that takes place
within the beltway, but ours includes births, deaths, marriages, trips, music, boating, books, movies, etc. The occasional political comment is quickly moved past. “Four more years” is not a chant of support any longer, but a whispered statement of despair.
"Republicans are paying a high price for falling in line with the MAGA movement."
Why no, not really. First point, Reagan campaigned on making American great again. The Democrat and elite media attempts to negative brand MAGA is not working. In fact, it is making a mess out of Democrat heads as they develop MAGA Derangement Syndrome as an addendum to their well entrenched Trump Derangement Syndrome and they mistakenly project that everyone else "feels" the same.
MAGA is synonymous with an America-First agenda supporting the the patriotic working class. It also defines the anti-globalist corporatist establishment Regime movement. Certainly the Democrats hate that movement, and so do the minority of old establishment Republicans with their hand deep in the donor class cookie jar. However, without that the Republicans are nothing... zero demographic groups to dominate. They might get a few stragglers from the old Democrats as they offer more free stuff and a Marxist drift to capture them; but as long as the Trump message and agenda dominates the Republican platform the message for Making America Great Again resonates with that working-class demographic. And that is why we see it crossing the standard divisive demographic groups that the elite media chattering class like to categorize. Economic class tends to transcend all other group labels except for the over-educated coastal and big city liberal elite that pursues those social and political wedge issues.
A recent paper by Rachel Kleinfeld from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace reports the latest of multiple findings that the general population of the US is not fundamentally polarized but is beleaguered by politicians who strive to whip up a sense of polarization — and by the media (social and otherwise) to which this fuss is a stock in trade. Kleinfeld writes,
"American voters are less ideologically polarized than they think they are, and that misperception is greatest for the most politically engaged people."
However, she does note the reality of "affective polarization": a dislike of people on the other side of the partisan divide that's grounded in emotion, not ideological incompatibility.
By the way, while I agree with your thesis, I must say I dislike headlines that tell me I'm thinking about something all wrong without knowing my thoughts. (Also headlines that tell me to "stop" doing something I've never done.)
I'm an elected democratic PCO of my voting precinct in Seattle. I'm a bipartisan wing democrat, not a progressive. I do vote across party lines when the other party's candidate matches my policy preferences best. This enrages party stalwarts, but I know that many voters in my precinct are not progressives as I review the precinct-level election results. I really encourage people to run for PCO in either party and represent your neighbors because this is an election year for PCOs and you need to register during filing week in your county. The election happens in the Primary, not the General. You'll take office in the New Year. It happens every even year. Across the country where once these PCO positions were competitively filled, they're now 80-85% vacant in both parties. This, in my opinion, is where the polarization comes from. I certainly witness it at my 36th LD Democrats meetings and endorsements. They'd vote communist if they could. Mark your calendar to run this year. Just check your County Elections Office for filing week and do it. There are very few moderate PCOs and we can really do something about that. I would bet that most journalists that write about polarization, don't even know that PCOs exist, so they've most likely never been one or perhaps haven't even attended a partisan meeting in their Legislative District to get a feel for the fringe people running the show in both parties. People call themselves Democrats and Republicans, but they don't look under the hood very often.
Once again, Yascha demonstrates that he understands America better than professional commentators. I thought that his interview with Edward Luce should have been titled “Thoughtful German Scholar Encounters Dogmatic and Predictable British Pundit.” The two foreign accents made it more amusing. This essay is the perfect follow up with “A new majority is there for the taking. But because of the abject failure of America’s political leaders to understand the moment, it will, at least for the next four years, continue to lie fallow.”
Make a list of five things that make up your identity. It probably doesn’t include political party. Every year we see articles telling us how to prepare for political fighting at holiday gatherings. Maybe that takes place
within the beltway, but ours includes births, deaths, marriages, trips, music, boating, books, movies, etc. The occasional political comment is quickly moved past. “Four more years” is not a chant of support any longer, but a whispered statement of despair.
"Republicans are paying a high price for falling in line with the MAGA movement."
Why no, not really. First point, Reagan campaigned on making American great again. The Democrat and elite media attempts to negative brand MAGA is not working. In fact, it is making a mess out of Democrat heads as they develop MAGA Derangement Syndrome as an addendum to their well entrenched Trump Derangement Syndrome and they mistakenly project that everyone else "feels" the same.
MAGA is synonymous with an America-First agenda supporting the the patriotic working class. It also defines the anti-globalist corporatist establishment Regime movement. Certainly the Democrats hate that movement, and so do the minority of old establishment Republicans with their hand deep in the donor class cookie jar. However, without that the Republicans are nothing... zero demographic groups to dominate. They might get a few stragglers from the old Democrats as they offer more free stuff and a Marxist drift to capture them; but as long as the Trump message and agenda dominates the Republican platform the message for Making America Great Again resonates with that working-class demographic. And that is why we see it crossing the standard divisive demographic groups that the elite media chattering class like to categorize. Economic class tends to transcend all other group labels except for the over-educated coastal and big city liberal elite that pursues those social and political wedge issues.
A recent paper by Rachel Kleinfeld from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace reports the latest of multiple findings that the general population of the US is not fundamentally polarized but is beleaguered by politicians who strive to whip up a sense of polarization — and by the media (social and otherwise) to which this fuss is a stock in trade. Kleinfeld writes,
"American voters are less ideologically polarized than they think they are, and that misperception is greatest for the most politically engaged people."
However, she does note the reality of "affective polarization": a dislike of people on the other side of the partisan divide that's grounded in emotion, not ideological incompatibility.
https://carnegieendowment.org/2023/09/05/polarization-democracy-and-political-violence-in-united-states-what-research-says-pub-90457
By the way, while I agree with your thesis, I must say I dislike headlines that tell me I'm thinking about something all wrong without knowing my thoughts. (Also headlines that tell me to "stop" doing something I've never done.)