One of the big problems in the US politics at the moment is the way that a lot of Republican voters are partisan to an extent that Democratic voters are not. This was captured well recently by a couple of different polls.
4 years ago after chemical weapons were used in Syria, 38% of Democratic voters thought a military intervention was a good idea. Now that the situation has repeated itself, 37% of Democratic voters supported Trump's missile strikes there. Those two numbers are identical to within the polls margins of error and suggests that most of those voters hold a particular view on the topic of military interventionism. Their opinion on the issue of military interventionism in Syria follow chemical attacks is apparently based on the issue itself and not on who the president happens to be when it occurs - they weren't for it when Obama was president and are suddenly against it now that Trump is president.
When Democratic voters were polled in Oct 2016 on whether the economy had gotten better or worse over the last year they were reasonably split between "stayed the same" (38%) and "gotten better" (41%) with relatively few saying "gotten worse" (18%). Polled again, in March 2017, on the question on the economy over the last year, when nothing in the economic situation has substantially changed since October (no economic crash, not great job losses or gains, no new laws passed that would impact the economy, no significant changes to international markets), the Democratic voters gave very similar but mildly more pessimistic answers with "stayed the same" (42%) now winning over "gotten better" (33%) and "gotten worse" (24%) still bringing up the rear. The difference between those results is probably within the margin of error of those polls. So the Democratic voters have certain views on the current economy, and those views haven't been much affected, or only very marginally (~6 points or so), by who is currently the president (Obama in Oct 2016 versus Trump in March 2017).
So what about Republican voters? Do they have solid views on the issues of whether the US should intervene militarily in the Middle East, or do they just boo whenever a Democrat is president and cheer whenever a Republican is president? Do they have consistent opinions about the current state of the economy, or does having a Republican president in the White House flip a switch in their brain and make them think the economy over the last year has been terrific?
Well... those same polls found that only 22% of Republicans supported Obama using military force in Syria after chemical weapons usage there, but a whopping 86% of Republicans support Trump's intervention there. It seems President R can do no wrong, while President D can't do anything right. And what about the economy? When asked the same question about how the economy had been over the last year in Oct 2016 vs Mar 2017, Republicans thought it had "gotten worse" (42%) or "stayed the same" (44%) when a Democrat was in the White House, with very few thinking it had "gotten better" (14%), but put a Republican president in the White House and their view magically changed... in March 2017 they overwhelmingly now thought that over the last year the economy had "gotten better" (59%) or "stayed the same" (33%), and the number who thought it had "gotten worse" (5%) had reduced to almost zero. Apparently without actually doing anything legislatively, Trump had improved the economy significantly over the previous year in the minds of Republican voters - about 42% of Republican voters flipped their view of the economy over the previous year from "gotten worse" to "gotten better" just because of a change of president.
This "asymmetric polarization", as it is known, causes a big problem in US politics. Democratic-leaning people have views on the issues, and tend to maintain those views consistently regardless of who is in office, and don't simply cheer for their side. Whereas Republican voters seem to mostly cheer for their team and boo the opposition team as if politics were a sports game. Their very opinion of what things have been like over the previous year is itself malleable to suit their desire to cheer-lead, and their previous expressed opposition to further military interventionism in the middle east (no doubt at least partially motivated by Trump himself on the campaign trail telling them intervening in Syria was a bad idea) evaporated the moment they saw their Glorious Leader launching the missiles.
Democratic voters actually care about politics and political issues. Republican voters just know they hate Democrats and support whatever their Team Republican is currently doing whatever that might be. And that level of idiocy coming from so much of the US voting population is a huge problem, and frankly I think it explains why US politics is the disaster that it is today.
4 years ago after chemical weapons were used in Syria, 38% of Democratic voters thought a military intervention was a good idea. Now that the situation has repeated itself, 37% of Democratic voters supported Trump's missile strikes there. Those two numbers are identical to within the polls margins of error and suggests that most of those voters hold a particular view on the topic of military interventionism. Their opinion on the issue of military interventionism in Syria follow chemical attacks is apparently based on the issue itself and not on who the president happens to be when it occurs - they weren't for it when Obama was president and are suddenly against it now that Trump is president.
When Democratic voters were polled in Oct 2016 on whether the economy had gotten better or worse over the last year they were reasonably split between "stayed the same" (38%) and "gotten better" (41%) with relatively few saying "gotten worse" (18%). Polled again, in March 2017, on the question on the economy over the last year, when nothing in the economic situation has substantially changed since October (no economic crash, not great job losses or gains, no new laws passed that would impact the economy, no significant changes to international markets), the Democratic voters gave very similar but mildly more pessimistic answers with "stayed the same" (42%) now winning over "gotten better" (33%) and "gotten worse" (24%) still bringing up the rear. The difference between those results is probably within the margin of error of those polls. So the Democratic voters have certain views on the current economy, and those views haven't been much affected, or only very marginally (~6 points or so), by who is currently the president (Obama in Oct 2016 versus Trump in March 2017).
So what about Republican voters? Do they have solid views on the issues of whether the US should intervene militarily in the Middle East, or do they just boo whenever a Democrat is president and cheer whenever a Republican is president? Do they have consistent opinions about the current state of the economy, or does having a Republican president in the White House flip a switch in their brain and make them think the economy over the last year has been terrific?
Well... those same polls found that only 22% of Republicans supported Obama using military force in Syria after chemical weapons usage there, but a whopping 86% of Republicans support Trump's intervention there. It seems President R can do no wrong, while President D can't do anything right. And what about the economy? When asked the same question about how the economy had been over the last year in Oct 2016 vs Mar 2017, Republicans thought it had "gotten worse" (42%) or "stayed the same" (44%) when a Democrat was in the White House, with very few thinking it had "gotten better" (14%), but put a Republican president in the White House and their view magically changed... in March 2017 they overwhelmingly now thought that over the last year the economy had "gotten better" (59%) or "stayed the same" (33%), and the number who thought it had "gotten worse" (5%) had reduced to almost zero. Apparently without actually doing anything legislatively, Trump had improved the economy significantly over the previous year in the minds of Republican voters - about 42% of Republican voters flipped their view of the economy over the previous year from "gotten worse" to "gotten better" just because of a change of president.
This "asymmetric polarization", as it is known, causes a big problem in US politics. Democratic-leaning people have views on the issues, and tend to maintain those views consistently regardless of who is in office, and don't simply cheer for their side. Whereas Republican voters seem to mostly cheer for their team and boo the opposition team as if politics were a sports game. Their very opinion of what things have been like over the previous year is itself malleable to suit their desire to cheer-lead, and their previous expressed opposition to further military interventionism in the middle east (no doubt at least partially motivated by Trump himself on the campaign trail telling them intervening in Syria was a bad idea) evaporated the moment they saw their Glorious Leader launching the missiles.
Democratic voters actually care about politics and political issues. Republican voters just know they hate Democrats and support whatever their Team Republican is currently doing whatever that might be. And that level of idiocy coming from so much of the US voting population is a huge problem, and frankly I think it explains why US politics is the disaster that it is today.
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