Why is American politics so much more polarized than it used to be?

[BrainGlutton]

Of course, there are alternate interpretations.

Like most historical myths, the myth of bipartisanship is a poor guide to historical understanding and contemporary action.

Yes, bipartisanship was much higher in the mid-twentieth century than it is now. A new graphic provides a striking illustration of the ideological fissioning of Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Senate.

But while partisan polarization was lower in the past, ideological polarization—disagreements on the basis of philosophy and values—has always been high. Back in the bipartisan Fifties, there were plenty of conservatives who thought that liberals were communists and plenty of liberals who thought of conservatives as fascists.

The difference between 2013 and 1963 is that in the earlier period liberals and conservatives were found in both of the two parties, which still reflected the geographic realignment that had produced the Civil War. The Democrats, still based in the South, had their conservative Southern and Midwestern members, while the Republicans, still the northern party of Lincoln, had many liberal members.

Thanks largely to the political realignment caused by the Civil Rights revolution a century after Appomattox, the Civil War party system has been replaced by our present pattern, in which the Democrats are a largely urban and nonwhite party strongest in the North, while the GOP is dominated by white Southerners. As a result of the post-Sixties realignment, conservatives are no longer divided into two parties by memories of the Civil War and progressives have regrouped into a single party, the Democrats.

But the shift is less dramatic when we look at ideology rather than partisanship. Half a century ago, conservatives and liberals were at odds, just as they are today. The only difference is that each camp frequently collaborated with their philosophical soulmates in the other party.

For example, between the mid-term elections of 1938 and the late 1950s, a “conservative coalition” of right-wing Democrats and conservative Republicans dominated Congress, rolling back some New Deal reforms and blocking further liberal advances.

[Kobal2]

@Conservian

IMHO, incivility in American political discussion, and the culture in general, is merely a symptom of a deeper root cause traceable to a time when Americans became more unabashed about rejecting its past Judeo-Christian Heritage - lowering the ethical standard within family, community and government. I’m making a specific reference here to the 1960s; the emergence of America’s “counter-culture.”

‘As the family goes, so goes America.’ It never really was about GM.

Out of idle and innocent curiosity, what is your position re: paper towel tubes ?