At the Washington Post’s website there’s an item titled “Obama: The most polarizing president. Ever.” The article looks over the gap between Presidential job-approval and job-disapproval ratings (by respondent’s party affiliation) over the years, and concludes that Mr. Obama has divided the nation more than any third-year President ever has. (In a recent poll, 80% of Democrats said they approved of his performance, while only 12% of Republicans did.)
But as divisive as Mr. Obama’s presidency has been, it would be wrong (at least in part) to blame the man: the issue is systemic. We read:
What do those numbers tell us? Put simply: that the country is hardening along more and more strict partisan lines.
While it’s easy to look at the numbers cited above and conclude that Obama has failed at his mission of bringing the country together, a deeper dig into the numbers in the Gallup poll suggests that the idea of erasing the partisan gap is simply impossible, as political polarization is rising rapidly.
Out of the ten most partisan years in terms of presidential job approval in Gallup data, seven ”” yes, seven ”” have come since 2004. Bush had a run between 2004 and 2007 in which the partisan disparity of his job approval was at 70 points or higher.
There is a broadening ideological schism in American sentiment on major issues of fundamental importance: the ever-increasing scale of federal spending and scope of intrusive federal regulation; nation-building abroad; the indifference of the Federal government to most illegal immigration, and outright antipathy to states who try to act when Washington abdicates; institutionalized racial and ethnic preferences that consistently disfavor white, Anglo-European people and culture; refugee-resettlement scams; foreign aid to nations that hate us; radical multiculturalism and non-discrimination; and so on.
The rift between these two constituencies is only getting wider and deeper and angrier, and that trend isn’t going to change. So as I’ve been saying for some time now: the practical issue is not that liberals and conservatives disagree about these things — it’s that they can’t get away from each other. This seems to me little different from the religious and ethnic tensions that have torn countries apart, often violently, throughout history. Such things rarely turn out well, and I don’t expect this will, either.
13 Comments
If “Bush had a run between 2004 and 2007 in which the partisan disparity of his job approval was at 70 points or higher,” then by definition he could not have had an approval rating among Republicans which exceeded 30%. I’m guessing that his actual approval ratings among Republicans were in the high teens and twenties.
I don’t think that is a sign of schism as much as one of consensus. With all of the Democrats and the great majority of Republicans in agreement that the guy was a disaster, it’s more like something we can all agree on than something which divides us.
Peter, you should make sure your brain is engaged before putting your keyboard in gear. What the article is talking about re Bush is a situation where Republican approval ran 70 points higher than Democratic.
Whoops! Right you are. I hang my head in shame.
I recently told one eye that he is a rather stupid person who imagines himself to be immensely intelligent. I didn’t expect him to conclusively prove this contention so quickly.
I’m guessing that his actual approval ratings among Republicans were in the high teens and twenties.
I can’t even imagine what chain of erroneous assumptions you made to arrive at such a spectacularly wrong conclusion.
Probably should have hired someone to take the SAT’s for me back when I had the chance.
I don’t know what you could possibly be referring to, Peter.
Severn, One-Eye is by no means a stupid person (his lamentable thralldom to the phantasms and hallucinations of liberal orthodoxy notwithstanding).
This was certainly not his finest hour, though.
Sure wasn’t. Today was a day when everything came unhinged.
I put on my tie, but the top button of my shirt came off. I picked up my briefcase, and the handle fell off. I wanted to take a pee, but I was afraid to.
The shirt button and the briefcase handle simply wanted to experience a bit of freedom. Why begrudge your body parts that same urge? Let them run free for a while! After they’ve had a chance to tear around the residence, madly sniffing every dark corner, they’ll eventually saunter back to you, a bit dusty perhaps, but with their curiosity and wanderlust sated.
Didn’t work for John Wayne Bobbitt.
But as I recall, Little Richard did come back to Big John, as Howard Stern can confirm.
(True: The reunion was not without scars. He’s more J/W/B than JWB now. But better a Frankenschlong than to be lackin’ schlong, I say.)
“institutionalized racial and ethnic preferences that consistently disfavor white, Anglo-European people and culture”
You must be joking right? I’m going to guess that was inserted by you to test whether anyone reads your posts thoroughly because you can’t possible believe that American society as it is currently constructed is disadvantageous to whites.
Joking? Of course not.