Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Why Democrats hate Texas and Republicans detest California

Blue donkey and red elephant facing off
kbeis/Getty Images

Klug served in the House of Representatives from 1991 to 1999. He hosts the political podcast “Lost in the Middle: America’s Political Orphans.”

A few years ago, a class of senior honors students at the University of Louisville learned firsthand the harsh reality of political stereotypes. They developed an ad for a hypothetical candidate running for Congress to get the reaction of 1,500 randomly selected people across the country. Two versions were created from the same script, using two different actors. One with a Southern accent, the other with the flat Midwestern delivery.

The students asked a couple of questions: Do you think this person is trustworthy, intelligent? Would you vote for this person? What political viewpoint would you ascribe to this person?

The students were taken aback when the Southern speaker got trashed.


“The feedback was harsh,” said Gracie Kelly, who helped run the project. “I have a Southern accent. The people we polled immediately assumed the candidate was conservative, didn’t support climate change and wanted very strict immigration policies. It was insulting. It did make me angry.”

We all use stereotypes, but in politics it amplifies our divisiveness, says DePaul University professor Christine Reyna.

“One of the most sophisticated things our brains do is categorize things. If I tell you something's a chair, you instantly know lots of things about it, right? And we categorize human groups, too. We categorize people by age, by gender, by race and by politics,” she said.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

Consider a few snapshots from across the partisan divide from a Florida State University study. On economic issues, Democrats said nearly 50 percent of Republicans belonged to the 1 percent, when it is actually closer to 3 percent. When asked what percentage of Democrats were gay, Republicans responded more than 40 percent. It's actually less than 5 percent.

I will never forget a contribution I received from a classmate at St. Rita’s grade school in Milwaukee. Scott Robideaux had penned a quick note that he attached to his check. “Hey best of luck. I can’t figure out who will be more offended my gay friends that I am supporting a Republican, or my Republican friends that I am gay.” Hard to believe decades later the same tension remains.

“When we talk about the other side, we talk with very negative traits,” says Brigham Young University assistant professor Ethan Busby. “We sort of say, ‘If I'm a Democrat, Republicans are bigoted and ignorant and selfish.’ And if I am a Republican talking about Democrats, I would say, ‘They're elitists who don’t understand people who go to church.’”

In our podcast episode on political stereotypes, the gang at Lost in the Middle thought it would be fun to frame the issue by examining why Democrats hate Texas and Republicans detest California.

Can a Washington bowling league get Congress to work together? by Scott Klug

We'll throw in the pizza and beer.

Read on Substack

Read More

War is Over billboard from John Lennon and Yoko Ono

A "War is Over" billboard created by John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

Flickr

A John Lennon reminder: So this is Christmas

“Happy Xmas (War Is Over),” a song by John Lennon released in 1971 that has become a Christmas classic, is more relevant today than ever.

Last year during the holiday season, I penned a similar version of this writing in which I said that 2024 would be a year that will test our resolve as a nation and test our democracy. I also noted that the opening verse of the song is a question all of us as Americans should ask:

So this is Christmas
And what have you done?
Another year over
And a new one just begun
Keep ReadingShow less
Red and blue hands coming together
JakeOlimb/Getty Images

Unity doesn’t mean thinking alike in a free society

“In the political life of a free society, unity doesn’t mean thinking alike,” according to noted political theorist Yuval Levin. “Unity means acting together.”

A couple weeks ago, Levin sat down with Brian Boyle of American Promise to unpack this idea and others from Levin’s latest book, “American Covenant: How the Constitution Unified Our Nation — And Could Again.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Older woman speaking with another woman

Listen for values and emotions, not just points you can rebut with facts.

kupicoo/Getty Images

Vaccines and values: When you’re having a tough conversation about medicine, don’t just pile on evidence − listen to someone’s ‘moral foundations’

It’s that special time of year when family and friends come together to celebrate the holidays, share meals, spread cheer – and, too often, pass along their germs.

Because vaccines can save lives and prevent serious illness, health professionals have long recommended vaccinations for influenza, COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. Yet despite these apparent benefits, many people decline.

Keep ReadingShow less
civic education notebook

We need to increase emphasis on schools as a more effective location for teaching interpersonal civil discourse.

Zhanna Hapanovich/Getty Images

4 S’s showcase how dialogue fits and where other approaches work best

In my previous article, I explained the “4 R’s” that should cause people to reconsider the extremely strong emphasis on civil discourse in efforts to reduce political divides in the United States. I also promised suggestions for how to use dialogue most effectively, in specific circumstances, and when non-dialogue approaches may be best.

A brief overview of the 4 R’s to reconsider such a heavy focus on dialogue reminds us that it is difficult to get many people to attend events (recruitment), civil discourse is not inherently effective (reliability), even a successful 1:1 interaction may not generalize to the entire out-party (representativeness) and getting people to repeatedly use skills learned is challenging (repetition).

Keep ReadingShow less