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.

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

Following Jefferson: Promoting Inter-Generational Understanding Through Constitution-Making

artistic animated portrait of Thomas Jefferson

Following Jefferson: Promoting Inter-Generational Understanding Through Constitution-Making

Part II: Preambles

The band of brothers that met in Philadelphia to draft a fresh Constitution shared one thing in common: They were children of the Enlightenment. It didn’t matter where they came from or what experiences shaped their lives, America’s Founding Fathers subscribed to the ideals of human reason, the rule of law, government by consent, and the all-important “pursuit of happiness.” The Enlightenment was their collective calling card.

That generational camaraderie found purchase in the immortal words of the preamble. “We the People of the United States,” the famous preface begins, “in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” Making promises, or at least challenging ourselves to reach a higher political vista, is pure Enlightenment thinking.

Keep ReadingShow less
From Minnesota to Utah: A Deadly Pattern of Political Violence

American flag with big crack or bullet hole.

Getty Images/Stock Photo

From Minnesota to Utah: A Deadly Pattern of Political Violence

We share in the grief over the weekend’s political violence that claimed the life of Rep. Hortman and her husband Mark, and our thoughts remain with Sen. Hoffman and his wife Yvette as they fight for their lives. This tragedy strikes at the heart of our democracy, threatening not just individual lives but the fundamental belief that people from different backgrounds can come together to solve problems peacefully.

The Minnesota shootings were not the only acts of political violence on June 14th. In Salt Lake City, gunfire shattered a peaceful "No Kings" protest, killing one demonstrator. In Austin, authorities evacuated the state Capitol under credible threats to lawmakers during another rally. In Culpeper, Virginia, a driver was arrested after driving into a crowd of protesters with his vehicle.

Keep ReadingShow less
Stories Matter: How Political Messaging Transforms Protests from Rights to Riots
Demonstrators protest in front of LAPD officers after a series of immigration raids on June 08, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.
(Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Stories Matter: How Political Messaging Transforms Protests from Rights to Riots

The images emerging from Los Angeles this week tell two very different stories. In one version, federal troops are maintaining law and order in response to dangerous disruptions in immigration enforcement. In another, peaceful protesters defending immigrant communities face an unprecedented deployment of military force against American citizens. Same events, same streets, entirely different narratives. And, as it often does, the one that dominates will determine everything from future policy to how history remembers this moment.

This isn’t a new phenomenon. Throughout American history, the story we tell about protests has mattered more than the protests themselves. And time and again, it’s political messaging, rather than objective truth, that determines which narrative takes hold.

Keep ReadingShow less
Flags of the United States hanging in front of the facade of a building
Colors Hunter - Chasseur de Couleurs/Getty Images

What ‘America First’ Really Looks Like

"Your flag flyin' over the courthouse

Means certain things are set in stone

Keep ReadingShow less