The Real Divide in America Is Between Political Junkies and Everyone Else

[PhDhawk]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/20/opin ... ket-newtab

[twocoach]

My guess is that I would find that article interesting but I cannot access it.

[PhDhawk]

My guess is that I would find that article interesting but I cannot access it.

A couple things from it:

For example, Democrats and Republicans who don’t follow politics closely believe that low hourly wages are one of the most important problems facing the country. But for hard partisans, the issue barely registers.

Partisan Republicans were most likely to say drug abuse was the most important problem facing the country. But less-attentive Republicans ranked it second to last, and they were also concerned about the deficit and divisions between Democrats and Republicans.

Among Democrats, the political junkies think the influence of wealthy donors and interest groups is an urgent problems. But less-attentive Democrats are 25 percentage points more likely to name moral decline as an important problem facing the country — a problem partisan Democrats never even mention

....

This gap between the politically indifferent and hard, loud partisans exacerbates the perception of a hopeless division in American politics because it is the partisans who define what it means to engage in politics. When a Democrat imagines a Republican, she is not imagining a co-worker who mostly posts cat pictures and happens to vote differently; she is more likely imagining a co-worker she had to mute on Facebook because the Trump posts became too hard to bear.

...

For partisans, politics is a morality play, a struggle of good versus evil. But most Americans just see two angry groups of people bickering over issues that may not always seem pressing or important.

[twocoach]

My guess is that I would find that article interesting but I cannot access it.

A couple things from it:

For example, Democrats and Republicans who don’t follow politics closely believe that low hourly wages are one of the most important problems facing the country. But for hard partisans, the issue barely registers.

Partisan Republicans were most likely to say drug abuse was the most important problem facing the country. But less-attentive Republicans ranked it second to last, and they were also concerned about the deficit and divisions between Democrats and Republicans.

Among Democrats, the political junkies think the influence of wealthy donors and interest groups is an urgent problems. But less-attentive Democrats are 25 percentage points more likely to name moral decline as an important problem facing the country — a problem partisan Democrats never even mention

....

This gap between the politically indifferent and hard, loud partisans exacerbates the perception of a hopeless division in American politics because it is the partisans who define what it means to engage in politics. When a Democrat imagines a Republican, she is not imagining a co-worker who mostly posts cat pictures and happens to vote differently; she is more likely imagining a co-worker she had to mute on Facebook because the Trump posts became too hard to bear.

...

For partisans, politics is a morality play, a struggle of good versus evil. But most Americans just see two angry groups of people bickering over issues that may not always seem pressing or important.

Thank you.

Yeah, I definitely see that some things that drives me crazy are completely off many people's radar. Mostly because they don't actually pay attention to what is going on outside of a few stories they may see roll by on their Facebook feed. Lots of people just flat out dont read any news due to lack of time or interest.

I had a conversation with a family member last holiday season and the vast majority of the topics mentioned were things they had never even heard of.

Lots of assumptions mixed with minimal knowledge or awareness.

[NewtonHawk11]

Here's the biggest difference I see. Heavy right is all about conspiracies. Heavy left is about wealth and pay gap between genders and the wealthy elite vs middle class.

I agree on what PhD posted from article. I think that's valid. I'd say the heavy right are really into conspiracy theories right now, too.

[twocoach]

Here's the biggest difference I see. Heavy right is all about conspiracies. Heavy left is about wealth and pay gap between genders and the wealthy elite vs middle class.

I agree on what PhD posted from article. I think that's valid. I'd say the heavy right are really into conspiracy theories right now, too.

Most people here consider me to be "heavy left" and those aren't my primary problems at all.

We can do better on the pay gap between women and men but it probably isn't Top 10 on my list. Paying women more is one of the downstream impacts of treating them more equally as citizens but it certainly won't be the reason that they are treated more equally as citizens. Cure the disease and the symptoms go away.

And I dont care about the wealth gap between the middle class and the ultra wealthy at all. I am middle class and I dont feel like I am entitled to have more without earning it just because someone else has a fuck ton more. If I invest in myself, put forth more effort and take more risks, I have the opportunity to make more.

I care most about the fact that the ultra wealthy have created a system that uses the poor as fuel to feed their money generating machine and spits their lifeless carcass out to the side of the road when they are no longer of use.

I care most about the hatred, both personally and legally, aimed at people who are not white, not male, not heterosexual, not of a specific religious belief and/or not rich. We simply treat them as "less worthy" of protection under the laws of our nation.

[Deleted User 310]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/20/opin ... ket-newtab

Great thread/post/article and totally agree.

[Deleted User 289]

This could have gone on multiple threads but it's an example of "divide".

The person who threw/sprayed water on the guy is an asshole.
The guy's reaction - asshole.
Proof "both sides" have assholes and we are the United States of Assholes.

https://twitter.com/RexChapman/status/1 ... 2061850631

[ousdahl]

Meant to the other day, but finally read the article.

I really can’t disagree. I think it’s a two way street, though: get those who are paying attention to tone it down, and get those who aren’t to actually care a little more.

The article doesn’t identify whether there’s any different across the aisle; whether a certain party or ideological leaning is more likely to have more hardcore junkies, or more apathetic types.

And the article makes no mention of the media and its role. I wonder to what degree certain media channels play in making some hardcore, and many others turned off.

[ousdahl]

This could have gone on multiple threads but it's an example of "divide".

The person who threw/sprayed water on the guy is an asshole.
The guy's reaction - asshole.
Proof "both sides" have assholes and we are the United States of Assholes.

https://twitter.com/RexChapman/status/1 ... 2061850631

Thank the lord they just threw water, and not a grocery bag.

[Sparko]

I grew up reading some of the true intellectual giants of conservatism and really believing hard work is rewarded. But I didn't have health care as I railed against socialized medicine and I didn't have connections to get into the select world of easy street. The Southern strategy corrupted the republican party beyond redemption--when they should have grown out of it like democrats belatedly did, they doubled down. Gingrich's pseudo knowledge replaced the well-respected thinkers on the right. It became a Fox-dominated White Water party. They became more and more insulated from facts. Clinton ran the country in a moderate republican way--even the health care plan they should have signed on to. They became good at demonizing things, but disavowed even the Romney health care plan of their own when it could be used as a divisive issue. And abortion: easy to entice evangelicals into a false morality on it, but without good education, health care and birth control, it is a recipe for disaster amongst the poor. The rich can always fly to France for an abortion. And do. The sad irony is we would have very few abortions with better attendance to health care and education. If sex were not something often coerced on the needy, weak, or young, we could have a talk about the sanctity of life. Their sanctuaries--your pitiful life oftentimes.
So a left wing moderate republican I became, then a democrat, a Lincoln Project kind of guy but 20-years earlier. I am actively searching for people and thinkers to make the country its best for the most of us when I read news or scientific literature. The best for the most means much less at the top; but it provides for the common defense and promotes the general health and welfare of ourselves and our posterity in a meaningful way. All of this is to say, that the conspiracy crap on the right deprives them of facts and truth and has since at least Gingrich became speaker. Try as we might, it is virtually impossible to get through to the true right wingers. It was like trying to talk to "the Count" on here. Empty discourse.

[seahawk]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/20/opin ... ket-newtab

Because an article based on opinions from January 2020, BEFORE THE PANDEMIC, has anything to say in the real world?

Seems like the real divide 10 months later is between those of every political stripe who wake up in the morning thinking how they'll deal with COVID-19 risks today and those who blithely go about maskless and organize super spreader activities/events to infect their friends, neighbors, relatives, political supporters.

[Sparko]

Ha! Hadn’t noticed the date. Fourth horseman was still at CPAC.

[seahawk]

Yes, I just happened to notice this paragraph and went ??????

At the start of the year (i.e., pre-pandemic), we asked people to name the two most important issues facing the country. As expected, we found some clear partisan divides: For example, Republicans are more likely than Democrats to cite illegal immigration as an important issue.

from the NYTimes article in the first post.