Political polarization
Tuesday, December 14, 2021 12:16 PM
Recent polls show that 90% of Democrats approve of Biden and 90% of Republicans disapprove of Biden. This is not the historical norm for presidents. It used to be about a third of the members of the opposition party would approve of the president. For example, about a third of Democrats liked Eisenhower and a third of Republicans liked Kennedy in polls. There seems to be much more political polarization now. You can also see this by going back and looking at the Kennedy-Nixon debates and then comparing that to the first Trump-Biden debate. There was a much higher level of hostility between Trump and Biden.
This may have something to do with the radicalization of both parties, with the Republicans taken over by the far right and the Democrats by the far left. On the important issues of the day like abortion or our response to Covid each side seems to be not open to compromise. This radicalization of American politics is not a good thing. You saw something like this in the early nineteen thirties in Germany where the political alternatives were far right Nazis and far left Communists and political moderates were a shrinking minority. The only time in recent American history I've seen Americans come together was momentarily after the 9/11 attack. What do you think is the cause of this political polarization and can it be reversed?
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