Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

'Polarized' doesn't describe us accurately, because there's a third force to reckon with

broken American flag
traffic_analyzer/Getty Images
Anderson edited "Leveraging: A Political, Economic and Societal Framework" (Springer, 2014), has taught at five universities and ran for the Democratic nomination for a House seat in Maryland in 2016.

The disgraceful storming of the Capitol has led House Democrats to ready a vote Wednesday impeaching President Trump for inciting the mob, and polling shows most Americans want him removed before his time expires next week. But the vast majority of Republicans oppose impeachment, and many still believe Trump's baseless assertion that he's being denied another term because of election fraud.

So there is undeniably deep division between Democrats and Republicans. But self-described independents, who account for two-fifths of the electorate, are currently siding with the Democrats by 2-to-1. They are hardly evenly divided on impeachment — and it's similarly impossible to prove the leanings of these 100 million are evenly divided between the two parties.

As a result, it is misleading to say we are a nation divided into two opposing groups. In reality, there are three groups, and you can appreciate this by considering three images of the country.

One is for Trump's backers. The next is for President-elect Joe Biden's supporters. The last is for those who either didn't vote, or voted for either Biden or Trump even though they were not passionately committed to either candidate.

Here is the Trump supporter picture, taken before the end of last week: He is at the White House sitting in bed and tweeting away. We see citizens reading his posts; they are either smiling or cheering, or locking their doors, or grabbing their guns, or checking their investment portfolios on their phones. We see them in churches. Others are at car races and horse races wearing MAGA hats. They are also in their small businesses and at assembly lines, with their hats, assembling machines or working at personal computers. They are predominantly white, and a good number are in rural areas.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

Here is the Biden supporter picture: Citizens are marching in the streets of several cities, protesting Trump and protesting the establishment. They are Blacks, women, environmentalists and members of the LGBTQ community. Others are praying in churches and synagogues, holding pictures of loved ones hospitalized with Covid-19. We see the poor and working-class Americans, on foot or in their cars, waiting at food banks. We see others telling their therapists and internists how relieved they are that their candidate won. They are teachers and professors, nurses and bus drivers. Half are white, but most are living in cities or suburbs.

Here is the third picture: It's dark and you can't see any people, but you can see captions of what they are saying: "I'm a moderate, and I voted for Biden because I don't like Trump." "I'm a moderate and I voted for Trump, but I don't love him." "I don't vote. The parties are the same. They both screw the middle class." "I don't vote either. And no one ever calls me to ask me why." "I stopped voting in 1976 after Richard Nixon was thrown out of office. I don't follow politics anymore." "I'm an independent, and I don't like either major party. I ignore them both. I vote in some elections." "I'm an independent, and I do follow politics. I usually vote for the Republican." "I'm an independent, and I also follow politics, and I usually vote for the Democrat."

The curious thing about this picture is that we can't see whether these people are living in the country, in cities or in suburbia — in a row house or a big new Colonial. And we cannot see their race or gender. Indeed, we know very little about them other than that about half are what political scientists call "low information voters." This group makes up about 40 percent of Americans old enough to cast a ballot.

What we don't have, then, is one image of America where everyone is rowing the same boat with their own oar. What we don't have is a massive blue army fighting a massive red army as though it were a battle in the Civil War.

There are really three Americas, and they cut across all of the most popular categories. We know a great deal about the pure Democrats and the pure Republicans. We know very little about the moderates and independents who vote for both sides and those citizens who don't vote at all. Independents alone account for two of every five adults eligible to vote. And about 80 million of that group, many millions of them unaffiliated with either party, didn't even vote at all this year.

The media insists that there are two categories, the D's and the R's. Our Washington politicians, who are deeply polarized, also act as though these are the only two options.

In the years ahead we need to recover from Trump, support Biden because he is going to be the president at a very difficult time — and give voice to those who are not part of the polarization drama. Only 51 percent of the 158 million people who voted cast their votes for Biden, while 47 percent went with Trump.

But these figures convey the misleading impression that we are a country divided between two sides. We are not.

Last week's awful assault on Congress should not only cause some Trump supporters to question their allegiance to the Trump Republican Party; it should also throw light on the fact that there are tens of millions of Americans who do not identify with the bitter polarization battles of Washington in the first place.

The new president, and the new Democratic Congress, need to represent all Americans. Not just those who voted for Biden with enthusiasm, or Trump with enthusiasm, but those who voted for Biden and Trump without enthusiasm and those who did not vote at all.

Read More

Podcast: How do police feel about gun control?

Podcast: How do police feel about gun control?

Jesus "Eddie" Campa, former Chief Deputy of the El Paso County Sheriff's Department and former Chief of Police for Marshall Texas, discusses the recent school shooting in Uvalde and how loose restrictions on gun ownership complicate the lives of law enforcement on this episode of YDHTY.

Listen now

Podcast: Why conspiracy theories thrive in both democracies and autocracies

Podcast: Why conspiracy theories thrive in both democracies and autocracies

There's something natural and organic about perceiving that the people in power are out to advance their own interests. It's in part because it’s often true. Governments actually do keep secrets from the public. Politicians engage in scandals. There often is corruption at high levels. So, we don't want citizens in a democracy to be too trusting of their politicians. It's healthy to be skeptical of the state and its real abuses and tendencies towards secrecy. The danger is when this distrust gets redirected, not toward the state, but targets innocent people who are not actually responsible for people's problems.

On this episode of "Democracy Paradox" Scott Radnitz explains why conspiracy theories thrive in both democracies and autocracies.

Your Take:  The Price of Freedom

Your Take: The Price of Freedom

Our question about the price of freedom received a light response. We asked:

What price have you, your friends or your family paid for the freedom we enjoy? And what price would you willingly pay?

It was a question born out of the horror of images from Ukraine. We hope that the news about the Jan. 6 commission and Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court nomination was so riveting that this question was overlooked. We considered another possibility that the images were so traumatic, that our readers didn’t want to consider the question for themselves. We saw the price Ukrainians paid.

One response came from a veteran who noted that being willing to pay the ultimate price for one’s country and surviving was a gift that was repaid over and over throughout his life. “I know exactly what it is like to accept that you are a dead man,” he said. What most closely mirrored my own experience was a respondent who noted her lack of payment in blood, sweat or tears, yet chose to volunteer in helping others exercise their freedom.

Personally, my price includes service to our nation, too. The price I paid was the loss of my former life, which included a husband, a home and a seemingly secure job to enter the political fray with a message of partisan healing and hope for the future. This work isn’t risking my life, but it’s the price I’ve paid.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

Given the earnest question we asked, and the meager responses, I am also left wondering if we think at all about the price of freedom? Or have we all become so entitled to our freedom that we fail to defend freedom for others? Or was the question poorly timed?

I read another respondent’s words as an indicator of his pacifism. And another veteran who simply stated his years of service. And that was it. Four responses to a question that lives in my heart every day. We look forward to hearing Your Take on other topics. Feel free to share questions to which you’d like to respond.

Keep ReadingShow less
No, autocracies don't make economies great

libre de droit/Getty Images

No, autocracies don't make economies great

Tom G. Palmer has been involved in the advance of democratic free-market policies and reforms around the globe for more than three decades. He is executive vice president for international programs at Atlas Network and a senior fellow at the Cato Institute.

One argument frequently advanced for abandoning the messy business of democratic deliberation is that all those checks and balances, hearings and debates, judicial review and individual rights get in the way of development. What’s needed is action, not more empty debate or selfish individualism!

In the words of European autocrat Viktor Orbán, “No policy-specific debates are needed now, the alternatives in front of us are obvious…[W]e need to understand that for rebuilding the economy it is not theories that are needed but rather thirty robust lads who start working to implement what we all know needs to be done.” See! Just thirty robust lads and one far-sighted overseer and you’re on the way to a great economy!

Keep ReadingShow less