POLITICS - Polarized America

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"Pew study finds more polarized Americans increasingly resistant to political compromise" PBS NewsHour 6/12/2014

Excerpts

GWEN IFILL (NewsHour):  A huge new Pew Research Center study of 10,000 American adults finds us more divided than ever, with personal and political polarization at a 20-year high.

The number of people identifying themselves as either consistently liberal or consistently conservative has doubled in the last decade.  They are less likely to compromise and often decide where to live, who to marry, and who their friends should be based on what they already believe.

Joining us now to talk about the new American extremes are Michael Dimock, vice president of research at Pew and the lead author on the survey, and Amy Walter, national editor at The Cook Political Report.

Let’s start with the self-labeling question, Michael Dimock, 10 percent in 1994, 2004 — 11 percent in 2004, 21 in 2014.  People said they were either consistently liberal or consistently conservative.

MICHAEL DIMOCK, Pew Research Center:  Right, and we’re not even going by what people call themselves.

We’re actually asking you a series of questions about major political values, the role of government, social issues, are immigrants a benefit to our society or a harm to our society, and what we’re finding is more and more people consistently answering all of those questions in a liberal or a conservative direction, still a minority, at 21 percent, but doubling over the last 20 years.
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GWEN IFILL:  Is it that people choose to live among people like themselves and therefore they become like that, or because they decide that they believe — have this set of beliefs and they choose to only associate with people like themselves?

AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report:  Well, so I think there’s probably a little bit of both.  Right?

And that — technology has only helped to exacerbate this.  So, there was a time in which it’s not just that you choose to live in communities where people think a lot like you.  And this study definitely showed that, that people who are more liberal live in urban areas.  People who are more conservative live in rural areas.

They cite things like diversity, if you’re liberal, as the most important value for them.  Out in the rural areas, where Republicans are, they cite religious issues, having an ability to connect on religious issues, as their most important value.

And then it gets exacerbated by the fact that you can literally isolate yourself now in a bubble thanks to our technology.  On the Internet, on cable television, you never, ever now have to see or hear anything that disagrees with your world view or your ideological point of view.