Reblogged: Don’t Celebrate Political Polarization

[dianahsieh]

From America’s growing political polarization:

Unfortunately, both Republicans and Democrats are ardent opponents of individual rights in various domains. That’s why I don’t regard America’s growing political polarization as a good trend. It limits our choices — and many people’s thinking — to “economic freedom (sort-of) plus theocratic social controls” versus “social freedom (sort-of) plus fascist economic controls.” Alas, the statist elements seem to be growing in both parties of late.

Instead, people need a clear choice of freedom versus statist controls in all areas of life. Nonetheless, the widening gap is fascinating… and there’s more in the Pew Study too. (The year-by-year animated graph is pretty nifty.) I’d just like to see data for more than 20 years!

Link to Original

[softwareNerd]

Here is the original study, on PEW's site. And, within the study, here are the 10 questions that are at the core of evaluating liberal vs. conservative.

[Nicky]

Seven questions are about economic liberty, one about military strength, one about the value of immigrants, and one about homosexuality.

If I were to answer those questions, I would be right on the border between "consistently conservative" and "mostly conservative". Even though I firmly reject the "theocratic social controls" OP claims the "conservative" half of the respondents stands for.

What's the point of writing all that speculation down and posting it all over the Internet, if you're not gonna check the poll questions it's based on?

Edited June 20, 2014 by Nicky