(06-30-2020, 12:52 AM)americus 2.0 Wrote:

(06-29-2020, 09:13 PM)Lucky2Last Wrote: Today? Both are, relatively speaking. While there are variations of extremes within parties, almost all of the issues of the day have been adopted by one side or the other. Pro-gun? Which party are you? Pro-abortion? Which party? Pro-environment? Pro-military? 

You can do this, for the most part, with every major issue. When you only need to ask a person one question to know which party they support, it's indicative of group think. It was not nearly this bad in the 70's.

You can't simply ask one question and have your answer. I'm pro-choice, pro-gun, pro-environment and pro-military. What does that make me according to your standard?

I probably took a wrong turn by likening homogeneity to the base instead of the politicians, but there are studies that suggest that as polarization among the elites has increased, the constituents have followed. It's not really difficult to probe the average person to find out their political leaning. You just listed 3 out of 4 positions that align with the Republican platform. Chances are, if we happened upon a political topic, I could guess your leaning based on your response. I think every person could find some position that could justify them claiming to be moderate. This is because most people aren't extremists. The truth is that most people (including the posters here), have nuanced positions. 

A major contributor to our polarization is the way we consume news. Who has time to research everything? Most people don't even watch or read the news. They rely on headlines to give them a general feel for what's going on in the world. When you couple this with the idea that news agencies basically serve as a branch of their respective parties, you get cherry picked information that is not being scrutinized, but politicized. 

Add this to the fact that many people will actually begin to derive their sense of self from their team. It's called social identity theory. So, in our current political climate, you have political elites that encourage team politics and use "journalism" to reinforce a homogeneous platform. Most people have to choose a team based on the one that best represent them. They start consuming news that reinforces their position. Then they begin to build an identity around that team, and, as that identity grows, begin to adopt more and more of the team policies. The worst part is the political elites know they are doing this. The media also knows the role they play. It's not hidden anymore.

---