History - How Did We Get Here

“Our Great Political Divide: Causes, Impacts, and Prospects” – A New Book by William G. Hurst

January 20, 2021 by admin

On July 29, 2021, Bill Hurst, head of the FixUS Michigan State Chapter, and author of this book, gave a presentation on the book to a FixUS audience. Go here to see the presentation.

Words by the author about Our Great Political Divide

After the improbable presidential election of 2016, I needed to understand why many of my rural neighbors in SW Michigan’s Berrien County supported Donald Trump so enthusiastically.

These neighbors are good people, who in 2016 helped my wife and I recover from the mess created by a 100 mph straight-lined wind which toppled 28 trees and flattened a 62’ X 22’ cinder block building.

How could these same good people support Donald Trump, who attacked existing domestic and international institutions created by and benefiting Americans since WWII, and who violated so many norms needed in our democracy? Where does their deep loyalty to Donald Trump come from? This book explains what to me was a mystery.

Trump has accelerated dysfunctional partisanship but is not the cause. This book goes well beyond him, through the evolution of our dysfunctional politics:

1960’s Civil Rights legislation, the Southern strategy of Goldwater and Nixon, the anti-elitism of Wallace, and unification of cultural and economic conservatism under Reagan, created and echoes today’s politics.
Voters and parties have sorted into geographical, educational, racial, religious and cultural bubbles, creating stacked identities with detrimental results on civility. The psychology of partisanship explains how intense dislike for the other side is not based on policy differences.
Identity politics and morality of left and right differ. Rising white identity has been a exacerbated by demographic changes. Conservatives have a fuller moral palate, leading to political advantage. The need for a fuller morality is explained, but so are its shortcomings in a diverse, complex, pluralistic society like the United States.
The rise of the Tea Party and of Trump are related, with both rooted in reactionary politics and both partially captured by special interests.
The last chapter on reform provides a systems-based critique of the perverse incentives entrenched in our two-party system, including a brief overview of the many organizations working to reform these structural issues.
100 pages of detailed interviews with Michigan neighbors from both sides of the aisle provide valuable political viewpoints of real voters.

This book combines findings from leading experts with SW Michigan neighbors’ perspectives so you can understand our partisan divide.

(Mosaic on book cover is from “Support the Center” by Greta Hurst)

Understanding US Identity Politics

January 4, 2020 by admin

Introduction

The 2016 election was contested based on “identity politics”. The 2020 election will also turn on identity politics along with other factors such as the economy. As polarization based on identity has become salient in our politics and society, a spate of excellent research explains its origin and characteristics.

This article provides a brief synthesis of approaches, which together provide a clear view of the history and character of our politics, including:

populism of the left and right,
re-alignment of the Parties since the 1960’s based on policies and party composition based on race,
ideological divides – the politicization of language around race, taxes and big government
the increasing emphasis of Democrats on group-coalition politics (group interests) as opposed to general economic well-being,
increased sorting of our Country along a range of dimensions, exacerbating political divisions,
identity politics as an outcome of sorting, and its emergence as a determinant of voter behavior,
identity as tribalism, and implications for inter-group political conflict,
is there a way out?

“Asymmetric Politics – Ideological Republicans and Group Interest Democrats” – A Review of an Astoundingly Perceptive, Evidence-Based Book Shedding Light on our Divided Politics

February 21, 2019 by admin

US Political Polarization — “The Great Divide”

This is a book which sheds light on the mysteries of our current politics. “Asymmetric Politics: Group Interest Democrats and Ideological Republicans” from Oxford Press, written by Matt Grossman of Michigan State and David A. Hopkins of Boston College, shows how the two parties are fundamentally different, and have been for a long time. Their messaging to voters, use of media, attitudes towards social science and scientific research, conduct of campaigns, and governing objectives and styles are fundamentally different. These differences explain contradictory behavior we see within each party and among voters.

Asymmetric Parties – the Key Difference:

Here is the key. Republicans value ideological purity, with messaging adopted towards conservative abstract appeals. Smaller government, government incompetence (real or fabricated), lower taxes, conservative social values, constitutional fidelity, nationalistic sentiment and for a portion of the populace and nativism are Republican themes that appeal to broad swaths of the public, even some Democrats.

Democrats, in contrast, value solutions delivering specific policies benefiting specific interest groups in their broad coalition. Civil rights, LGBT rights, women’s rights, labor rights, rights of working class, and environmentalism are key areas of focus for Democrats. Even when policies can be explained in terms of overall liberal objectives such as egalitarianism, Democrats avoid ideology in favor of pragmatic appeals to specific policy results and empirical practicality.

These different approaches, which are asymmetric, manifest themselves in different political messaging and different styles of governing, with Democrats emphasizing a pragmatic approach and Republicans emphasizing adherence to ideological goals. [Read more…] about “Asymmetric Politics – Ideological Republicans and Group Interest Democrats” – A Review of an Astoundingly Perceptive, Evidence-Based Book Shedding Light on our Divided Politics

“The Populist Explosion”, by John B. Judis, explains politics since 2008

January 10, 2018 by admin

How do we explain voter discontent? Why did Bernie Sanders gain such popularity at the same time as Donald Trump? What is different about one versus the other, and how can they both share the “populist” nomenclature? “The Populist Explosion”, by John B. Judis, published by Columbia Global Reports, provides an excellent framework and specific historical context for understanding the phenomenon of populism and its rise all over the world since the Great Recession of 2007.

Populism requires historical understanding because the rising up of “the people” versus the elite often embodies different specific policies and causes, depending on the times. Populism is a “logic”, not a specific set of policies. The populist movements in US history see ordinary people as virtuous, and the elites as self-serving and undemocratic. [Read more…] about “The Populist Explosion”, by John B. Judis, explains politics since 2008

How Did Our Politics Degenerate? A Review of “Chain Reaction: The Impact of Race, Rights, and Taxes on American Politics”

March 19, 2017 by admin

Support the Center - How Did We Get Here — Support the Center – How Did We Get Here?

In 1991, 26 years ago, Thomas Edsall, assisted by his wife, Mary, published an astoundingly relevant book, “Chain Reaction, The Impact of Race, Rights, and Taxes on American Politics”, that explains how the Democratic coalition created by Franklin Roosevelt, active and dominant from 1932 through 1964, lost its focus on broad central concerns, and instead became subject to attacks from a revitalized Republican, conservative movement, that was able to peg the Democratic party and liberals as elitist, and government as primarily a force for the promotion of special minority rights and re-distribution for groups such as poor blacks, Hispanics and gays. In the debate, taxes were positioned by conservatives as primarily an agent of re-distribution to these groups at the expense of the middle class. Democrats, for their part, did not address these concerns, and instead focused on special interest politics (most recently on transgender bathroom access). In the process, working and lower middle-class white voters were peeled away from the Democratic coalition to align (ironically) with traditional Republican policy-makers whose goals and practice has been to primarily benefit the very wealthy.