More Americans are sticking to party lines when voting and deciding what they believe on issues, according to new findings by the Pew Research Center.
The political polarization values gap is larger now than age, class or gender divides, according to a Pew study conducted over the past 25 years, which means it is less likely now for there to be a Republican who holds liberal views on a few key issues, or vice versa.
A graph showing political positions of each member of the 111th House of Representatives, based on each member’s amount of affirmative and negative votes, shows even the closest-to-center people do not overlap, according to the NOMINATE scaling method.
This phenomenon, known as political polarization, has increased over the past 25 years from 10 percent to 18 percent.
The percentage points in this study represent the average difference between answers to questions asked of Democrats and Republicans.
Political science professor and Graduate Studies adviser James Garand illuminated this, saying political partisanship is an interesting phenomenon, most likely caused by the gap between average incomes.
According to Pew, the gap between incomes in political parties remains at 10 percent, similar to the numbers collected over the past 25 years.
Income for the top fifth of households in America rose by 1.6 percent in 2011, while those in the middle declined and those at the bottom stayed the same, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Income aside, partisan gaps create a more homogeneous world in which party members operate, Gerand said.
“You have common ground with people when your moderately conservative next-door neighbor has a friend with liberal social views and conservative fiscal ones, while you have mostly liberal views. You can have a conversation,” Garand said.
Data shows this opportunity for conversation is changing.
The same data does not negate the fact that more Americans identify themselves as Independents, but even Independents have leanings, according to the American National Election Studies.
The number of true Independents as measured in recent presidential elections has remained around 10 percent.
No third party encompasses the entire independent vote, but the American Centrist Party, self-described as comprised of people who do not “hold themselves to the party politics of the right or left,” strives to capture the American vote by acknowledging and using positive aspects of both major parties while discarding the negative ones.
“Most Americans are Independent Centrist; they just don’t know it yet,” the website claims.
