The Pandemic Has Become One More Issue for Americans To Fight Over - Reason.com
“In a deeply divided nation, Democrats and Republicans don’t just disagree, they hate each other.”
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Americans will survive the virus, but American political life is sicker than ever.
J.D. Tuccille| 4.29.2020 11:15 AM
Media Contact & Reprint Requests (Cory Clark/ZUMA Press/Newscom)
Difficult circumstances are said to bring people together. But, if anything, COVID-19 has widened political and cultural fracture lines in the U.S., giving us more to fight over and less reason to trust each other in times to come.
In an election year dominated by two worn-out, mutually loathing legacy political parties, there's no reason to think any of these tensions will be resolved by the outcome of the vote.
Sorted by culture, lifestyle, and political affiliation into two dominant tribes—"red" Republicans and "blue" Democrats—most Americans have declining contact with those outside their own camp, less in common with those who live differently, and slumping opinions of one another to match. Urban and suburban blues disdain those who don't share their values, politics, and way of life, and rural and exurban reds return the sentiment.
Last year, U.S. News & World Reportpointed out that "Democrats and Republicans don't just disagree, they hate each other." Sad to say, the polling bears that out.
As of last fall, 80 percent of Democrats described the Republican Party as controlled by racists, according to Public Religion Research Institute polling. A similar percentage of Republicans see the Democratic Party as controlled by socialists.
Half of surveyed Democrats and Republicans alike consider each other "ignorant" and "spiteful" Axiosfound. More strongly, 21 percent of Democrats said Republicans were "evil," and 23 percent of Republicans said the same about Democrats.
Worse, 18 percent of Democrats and 13 percent of Republicans said that "violence would be justified" if the opposing party wins the 2020 presidential election, according to Nathan P. Kalmoe and Lilliana Mason, political scientists at Louisiana State University and the University of Maryland. But the prospect of themselves winning the election actually increased support for violence. And that's before Americans started arguing over the seriousness of COVID-19 and the proper way to handle the pandemic.
Now, we know the disease is just one more thing for us to argue about.
A working paper by economists from Stanford, Harvard, and New York University finds "substantial gaps between Republicans and Democrats in beliefs about the severity of COVID-19 and the importance of social distancing." Specifically, "Democrats were consistently more concerned than Republicans about the spread of coronavirus." The authors link the difference of opinion to the concentration of Democrats in densely populated urban areas, while Republicans tend to live in more lightly settled communities. That squares with other polling finding an urban/rural divide in experiences of the pandemic.
Democrats and Republicans also disagree over whether the worst is over, and over the wisdom of restrictive lockdown orders. Kaiser Family Foundation finds that "four in ten Republicans (38%) say such orders do more harm than good," compared to five percent of Democrats.
So it's no surprise that the resulting protests against stay-at-home orders around the country have become yet another partisan flashpoint setting Team Red against Team Blue. Participants who want to return to something resembling normal life, including making a living, are tagged as "covidiots," while their opponents who prefer extended mandatory social-distancing efforts to battle contagion are charged with "pandemic panic."
"Controversy over lockdowns has drawn people on both sides to demonize one another," writes Arnold Kling, who in 2017 authored The Three Languages of Politics: Talking Across the Political Divides. "In Demonization Mode, we divide the world into people trying to do good and people trying to do evil, and we characterize those with whom we disagree as trying to do evil."
And the thing about evil people is that you really don't want to be under their control. Losing an election to somebody you disagree with on a few issues is disappointing. Being defeated by evil, though, is a threat to your very existence.
Politicians, being the creatures they are, have done their best to fulfill all of the fears of their enemies.
President Donald Trump, by his own admission, advised Vice President Mike Pence to ignore calls for help from Democratic governors who criticize administration pandemic efforts.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo threatened to steal ventilators from hospitals located in upstate counties where voters tend to oppose him and deliver them to New York City and its suburbs, where his supporters are concentrated.
Come November, in elections across the U.S., the partisans of one side or the other will lose to opponents they increasingly see as evil, ignorant, and spiteful. They will have to concede power to people they consider wrong on every important issue, including the response to COVID-19. And they will contemplate the prospect of continuing to be governed by people they know return the contempt, and who they've recently watched abuse position and authority to punish enemies and reward friends. Forget coming together—Americans will be more resentful of each other than ever.
To give those who say disaster brings us together their due, that may be true for discrete events.
"It may be that 'acute' stress, i.e. a one-time stressful experience may lead to social bonding, as shown in the study, but that 'chronic' stress, i.e. repeated exposure to stress over a long period, might wear us out," wrote Emma Seppala of Stanford University's Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education in Scientific American.
America's division into hostile factions isn't a recent occurrence; the fractures have been deepening and the disagreements growing more bitter for years. This year, instead of being a one-off crisis, the pandemic became a continuation of an ongoing conflict. That's as "chronic" as it gets, and there's nothing to suggest that the stress is going away anytime soon.
The United States, write Thomas Carothers and Andrew O'Donohue for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, is one of several politically divided countries where "the pandemic has amplified the already dangerous effects of polarization, with serious ramifications for public health, democratic governance, and social cohesion."
Americans will survive and overcome the pandemic, as they have so many other challenges in the past. Whether they can continue to put up with each other isn't so certain.
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Democrats, Republicans and the New Politics of Hate
“ Nearly half the country (48%) thinks the Republican Party has been taken over by racists, a view held by 80% of Democrats. And the Democratic Party? Nationally, 44% think it's been taken over by socialists – and 82% of Republicans share that opinion, according to the extensive study, "Fractured Nation: Widening Partisan Polarization and Key Issues in 2020 Presidential Elections."”
Neither party seems to have the ability to articulate its stand and beliefs, much less philosophy, but the other party always condemns them for being inarticulate and having no philosophy. Both parties do agree on one thing though, power is good in our hands .
The right likes to talk about the 'real america' or 'true america'. But what is that? The best I can tell, it is rural, white and christian. Now there are those who accuse me of being from the left. Now here is the problem with that. I come from the Eastern New Mexico, Texas panhandle rural area, and I am white.
I'm only missing one piece, but not all my life. So apparently I'm from real America, but I'm not a real American. Who knew?
Now the left, they like to talk about all Americans, except those who don't agree with them. They are still overwhelmingly white, old and elite. But given the problems with the democrats, they still represent the best available option for those who are not 'real americans'.
Or are they?
I haven't voted for a d or r in 35+ years now. I'd rather vote for my dog. I don't necessarily dislike the individuals in those clubs, I just don't like what their clubs stand for. Even when I acknowledge that I have shared some views from either side, I still can't get an acknowledgement from them that there has been agreement. The reply always has to start with some kind of denial
of some kind of perceived threat or disagreement.
I am reminded of the Alamo. Both sides saw themselves at a crossroads. Both side asked nor gave quarter. Neither side bothered to negociate. They both were right. And the side that won lost more than the side that lost.
The side that won lost because its vision became quickly overwhelmd by what the losing side wanted.
And who lost the most? The people themselves who thought they had won.
Both sides -ism will get Trump re-elected, because it is the only way he can be "normalized. He knows he is a pos, and his campaign strategy is to try and tear Biden down to his level.
It should go without saying that now is not the time for both sides-ism, but we see it here , and everywhere else, every day.
You cannot dismiss it so easily as that. Here is a natural disaster that presumably "American exceptionalism" would shine and people would come together to work for the common good. But no, it has to be politicized. It isn't an ism, it is, as stated in the article:
"In an election year dominated by two worn-out, mutually loathing legacy political parties, there's no reason to think any of these tensions will be resolved by the outcome of the vote."
Neither party gives a damn about saving the country save to hold the power. That is what the parties want and that is seemingly what their constituents want.
So what do you want to do John? Do you want to have some kind of idea sharing? Do you want to convince people of the pureness of your vision? You don't do that by slinging mud at the other side continuously. You do that by finding some kind of common ground to have a discussion and work out from there.
I comment mostly on the conservative posts because I find them more interesting. 90% of the time, I disagree with what is posted. But there is a small percentage of posts where I do agree. And they have noticed, and we have had some quite fruitful discussions.
What I am really trying to point out, is that in a time when we really should be working together, neither side wants to do so and thereby show that those two parties should no longer be in power.
So, yeah, you know what? Let's go ahead and call an ism. Sure, why not. Because you know what. Both parties are POS as far as I am concerned. So there we are John. Convince me that I would be better off with a D in office.
I'm surprised you don't see Trump encouraging armed protesters, who are directly linked to his supporters and campaign donators. He lies about this disaster from the beginning and his entire reason is politically motivated, because that is how he is, he does not care about coming together, he divides at all times. The usual politics is one thing, Trump is not even trying to lead the country together, he is even pitting states against each other (costing the entire country even more, by the way) and he is advocating against the very guidelines his own experts put out. Its insulting to pretend everything is equal, just have some damn standards for this supposed 'leader'. He is still screwing everything up and not facing what his own experts are telling him. Enough of this incompetence and the daily lies and gaslighting of the past. Lead. Tell the truth and take responsibility for past mistakes and fix them instead of continuing to LIE about it.
And why are you relying on him to 'bring the country together'?
I simply do not understand this focus on it being the presidents job to bring the nation together? Do you really believe that some old white dude in DC is going to be able to bring together the people of blacks and mexicans of south Dallas? Hell no. This singular focus on the presidency is what has gutted the ability of the federal government to do anything. It didn't start with Trump, you have to go back to Wilson.
This always looking to the federal government has got to stop. This fetishism of the presidency has got to stop.
Bringing people together happens the same way the virus spreads. One person at at time. Take the time to get to know your neighbors. Bring your neighbors together. Then they will bring people from other neighborhoods into the fold and pretty soon you'll have a whole city brought together. That is where real life takes place. Then that city can begin to involve other cities and pretty soon you have a large network. Pretty soon you have a lot of connected places.
You don't get that kind of connection from the top down. It only works from the bottom up.
By the way, like the avatar.Looks like something my brother would have drawn in '68
I'm not really confused, at least not yet. I have high blood pressure, but not dementia.
I have consistently stated, here on NT and elsewhere, this really started with FDR if not Wilson. Whites can be a part of the solution, just not to the exclusion of everyone else. And I'm not really sure where you got the idea I said or thought that. If you can point that out to me, I'll be sure not to make that mistake again.
Sanity and compromise left the building on January 3, 1987 when Tip O'Neil retired.
That is a sad statistic. IMO it shows that the fringe nuts cases seem to have control of the parties.
Why do you think that is?
This country is in serious denial. Talking about "both sides" being at fault ONLY helps Trump. Why that is not obvious to people is beyond me.
Because it is the truth.Now believe me, I've had my Alice in Wonderland moments with the help of some windowpane, but the truth is still better. And if your only objective is to beat Trump without offering some better vision, well....there we are.
And when you say the 'this country is in serious denial' does that not include both sides? It seems you want to have your cake and eat it too.
Violence over politics is never justified unless some one or somebodies are trying to overthrow our system of government for a dictatorship whether that dictatorship be far left wing or far right wing
I’m glad George Washington didn’t feel that way. I see nothing to indicate he wanted a dictatorship.
Me, neither, but George Washington was fighting against an imperialist tyranny aka dictatorship like we see today. Sure, King George had a parliament but they were just as tyrannous as he was.
I'm not saying violence is never justified and if you had read my comment you would have comprehended that.
It would behoove you to review the Whiskey Rebellion. President George Washington sure as hell DID feel that way.
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[comment spamming with sweeping generalizations]
what does that have to do with what we're talking about? And if you will bother to read my comment at 3.2.2 you'll see that sometimes violence is justified
moderating stuff from 4 days ago?
why not go through my comment history yrs back and have some real fun?
My feeling is that the parties were well on their way in those directions long before now. The nexus just happened to occur at a most inopportune moment.
I agree.
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[Deleted] Especially when I defend Muslims.
we don't wake up pissed off about muslims.... LOL
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until then? ya missed by a mile.
Perhaps you don't, but some do, and I have had my moments with them.
your roommates don't represent the majority.
meanwhile, tds is rampant in the left.
I honestly doubt they will ever get over trumps election much less his re-election in nov.
My roommate would be my wife. The encounters have occurred both here and Facebook. [Deleted]
Nor did I state that it was majority opinion, but it obviously has garnered much attention over the last several years, which I presume you have forgotten.
when you figure out the difference between muslims and muslim terrorists? get back to me.
have a great day
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seriously bro, was good fun, I didn't take offense to anything you said.
cheers
It didn't bother me, but I guess it bothered Sandy. I've been ticketed more in the last 3 months than the previous 10 years. Go figure.
nothing I type is any worse than other comments they let stand.
so every ticket I get is like a gold star. / badge of honor.
The bottom line here is Putin's campaign to instill uneasiness and division in the Western Democracies is working.
"80 percent of Democrats described the Republican Party as controlled by racists, according to Public Religion Research Institute polling. A similar percentage of Republicans see the Democratic Party as controlled by socialists."
The News Media is just followin' a more up to date " Journalist Creed " now.
1908 is so in the "Past" !