by jpitney | Jul 10, 2023 | Campaign Finance, Crime, Polarization
Polarization and partisan animosity provide an opportunity for scam artists to make money — sometimes from both sides at once. Laura J. Nelson reports at LAT Two Californians set up a pair of political action committees, called the Liberty Action Group and the...
by jpitney | Jul 2, 2023 | Polarization, Public Opinion
Daniel A. Cox and Ruy Teixeira at the Survey Center on American Life: Few partisans perceive their party as embracing extreme ideological positions. Nearly three-quarters of Republicans believe the Republican Party is ideologically conservative, but only 22 percent...
by jpitney | Apr 27, 2023 | Civility, Polarization, Public Opinion, Social Media
From the American Bar Association: A massive 85% of U.S. residents believe civility is worse compared to 10 years ago, and a majority believe social media and media are to blame, according to the fifth annual American Bar Association Survey of Civic Literacy. Nearly a...
by jpitney | Mar 6, 2023 | Polarization, Public Opinion
David French at NYT: And where are we now? Has the fever passed? Not by a long shot. America is in the grips of a simply staggering amount of partisan animosity. As I wrote in my newsletter last week, overwhelming majorities of Republicans and Democrats believe that...
by jpitney | Feb 11, 2023 | Civility, Deliberation, Polarization
Robert Alexander at RealClearPolitics: In order to move beyond this “polarization pandemic,” we must start with civility. Our politicians must set a better example for all of us. Tolerance is a key feature of healthy democracies and is most likely to prevail when...
by jpitney | Nov 3, 2022 | Bipartisanship, Congress, House of Representatives, Polarization
For years, writes Don Wolfensberger at The Hill, a conservative coalition forged compromise in the House. But that model was understandably challenged by a large cohort of new, liberal Democrats elected in 1974 (“the Watergate Babies”) who had been schooled in the...
