Pew: Partisan polarization surges in Bush, Obama Years
Posted: Jun 05, 2012 1:00 PM EDT
By Whitney Burdette - email
The values gap between Republican and Democrats is now greater than gender, age, race or class divides.
This is one of the findings of a new Pew Research poll, which shows that Americans are more polarized along political lines than at any point over the past 25 years, when Pew began tracking these measures.
Overall, according to Pew, there has been much more stability than change across 48 political values measures. However, the average partisan gap has nearly doubled over the 25-year period, from 10 percent in 1987 to 18 percent in the new study, released June 4.
Nearly all of these increases have occurred during the presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, Pew found. During this period, both parties' bases have been critical of their own parties for not standing up for traditional positions. Currently, 71 percent of Republicans and 58 percent of Democrats say their parties have not done a good job in backing traditionally held positions.
So what does this mean for the 2012 election? According to Pew, the largest divides between committed supporters of Obama and presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney are over scope and role of government in regard to the economy.
Swing voters, who make up about 23 percent of registered voters, tend to fall about halfway between certain for Obama and certain for Romney, the survey found. Swing voters are either undecided, only lean toward a candidate or favor a candidate, but still say there is a chance they could change their minds before November.
The Pew survey looked at the public's attitudes on the roles and performance of government, the environment, business, labor, equal opportunity and national security among other aspects. According to the report, Republicans are most distinguished by their minimalist views about the role of government and lack of support for environmentalism, while Democrats have become more socially liberal and secular. The survey found that people of both parties were similar in their level of political engagement.
On some sets of issues Pew studied, including the social safety net, sizable gaps were noticeable in the initial 1987 survey. On others, such as measure of religiosity and social conservatism, only modest differences existed initially, but those divides have also grown.
Additionally, the number of independent voters continues to increase while the size of the Republican and Democrat parties shrink. Pew polling so far in 2012 has found that fewer Americans affiliate with one of the two major parties than at any point in the past 25 years. Currently, 38 percent of American voters identify themselves as independent, 32 percent as Democrats and 24 percent say they are Republican. That has changed little in recent years, according to Pew, but long-term trends show that both parties have lost support.
http://www.statejournal.com/story/18706164/pew-partisan-polarization-surges-in-bush-obama-years
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