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Old 31st December 2012, 08:01 AM   #26
Meadmaker
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Originally Posted by theprestige View Post
Don't give in to the polarization hype!
The polarization isn't all hype.

In the run up to the election, I saw an interesting statistic. The researchers wanted to determine whether or not we are really more divided today than we used to be. I can't remember the exact numbers, so I'll make them up if need be. (It was in a National Review article written on election day if anyone is motivated to look up the original.)

They looked at voting records by county across the nation. They defined a concept of a "landslide county" as one where one candidate for President received more than 60% of the vote. They found that in the decades since the '60s, the number of people living in landslide counties had dramatically increased. In other words, we are more likely to live around people who think and vote the way we do. We are less likely to have neighbors with different political leanings than we used to. We are more polarized in that sense.

This has implications for politicians, and we have seen it play out especially on the Republican side of the aisle. If you live in a landslide Congressional district, your seat is pretty darned safe in the general election. However, it isn't as safe in the primary. There are enough people in your party that mounting a challenge in the primary becomes more feasible. A lot of moderate Republicans have lost primary bids lately.

The trend isn't exclusively Republican. Joe Liebermann also got taken down in the primary.

I think this really is affecting fiscal cliff negotiations. From an electoral perspective, doing what you think is right for the country becomes less important than keeping true to the dominant ideology in your region.
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