The hardening political divide in Washington reminds me of an interesting analysis that NBC’s Chuck Todd did a couple of years ago.
So, let’s flashback:
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It’s no secret that American politics has become increasingly – and maybe, irreversibly – polarized.
Of course, Obama lays blame on Trump and his band of ignorant deplorables.
Let’s look at some inconvenient facts from Todd’s analysis…
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As Meet the Press host Chuck Todd puts it:
Polarization is no longer just polluting the system — it’s paralyzing it.
The deepening divide between the right and the left has largely hollowed out the center of American politics.
Gone are the politicians who once occupied the large “middle” and the voters who once gravitated to them.
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The Pew Research Center has tracked party identity and ideology for decades.
One way they do it is by scoring the Republicans and Democrats on a 10-item scale of political values.
Based on the latest Pew data (from 2014), here’s where we stand:
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What the chart means …
Democrats cluster to the left, Republicans cluster to the right.
There is less than 10% in each party leaning ideologically to the left (or right) of the other party’s median.
That’s where we are.
How did we get here?
The Homa Files 