WASHINGTON (AP) — Political polarization in America has broken out of the voting booth.
A
new survey from the Pew Research Center finds Americans are divided by
ideology and partisanship not only when they cast ballots, but also in
choosing where to live, where to get their news and with whom to
associate.
And peaceful coexistence is increasingly difficult.
According
to the poll, the share of Americans who hold across-the-board
conservative or liberal views has doubled in the last decade, from 10
percent in 2004 to 21 percent today. Only 39 percent of Americans have
an even mix of liberal and conservative positions, down from 49 percent
10 years ago.
The numbers of ideological purists are larger among
the politically engaged than the general public, suggesting the
ideological stalemates that have become more common in Washington and
statehouses around the country are likely to continue. A third of those
who say they regularly vote in primaries have all-or-nothing ideological
views, as do 41 percent who say they have donated money to a campaign.
And
among partisans, ideological purity is now the standard. Majorities in
both parties hold either uniformly liberal (on the Democratic side) or
conservative (among the GOP) views.
The shift toward ideological
purity has been more visible among Republicans due to the popularity of
the tea party, seen most recently this week in House Majority Leader
Eric Cantor’s loss to a tea party-based challenger in Virginia, but the
survey found it’s happening in nearly equal measure among Democrats.
Those
differences in visibility are partly due to the Democratic hold on the
White House, according to Pew Research Center Vice President Michael
Dimock.
"Levels of alarm about the direction of the nation, and
about the ‘threat’ the other party poses to the country, are
substantially higher on the right than on the left right now, and at
least in part this reflects the fact that Barack Obama is in the White
House," Dimock said.
But Democrats have expressed their share of
distrust in the past, he noted in an email. "Democrats felt pretty
passionately about George W. Bush and the GOP in his second term," he
said.
The survey used a battery of 10 questions on issues such as
regulation of business, use of the military, the environment and
immigration to assess ideological leanings. Across nine of the 10 issues
tested, the views of Democrats and Republicans have grown further apart
since 1994.
These ideological shifts have been accompanied by
increasing animosity across party lines, and those on opposite sides of
the partisan and ideological divide are now more apt to separate
themselves in their personal lives as well.
About 8 in 10
Democrats say they have an unfavorable opinion of the Republican Party,
and for 82 percent of Republicans, the feeling is mutual. This
cross-party dislike has increased by double digits on both sides.
Among
those with ideologically consistent views in each party, many go
further than dislike and say they see the other side as a threat to the
nation’s well-being. Republicans with consistently conservative views
are more apt than Democrats with a strictly liberal view to see the
opposite party as a threat, however, 66 percent to 50 percent.
Amid
all this rancor, partisans and those with clear ideological leanings
are more often choosing to associate only with those who hold views
similar to their own. Two-thirds of consistent conservatives and half of
consistent liberals say most of their close friends share their
political views. Three in 10 on each side of the divide say it’s
important to them to live in a place where most people share their
political views.
And one-quarter of consistent liberals say they’d
be unhappy if an immediate family member married a Republican, 30
percent of consistent conservatives say the same about a union with a
Democrat.
The findings are based on a telephone survey of 10,013
randomly selected adults nationwide, conducted between Jan. 23 and March
16. Results based on the full sample have a margin of sampling error of
plus or minus 1.1 percentage points.
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Online:
Pew Research Center: http://www.pewresearch.org