Olympia Snowe's surprising retirement announcement has set off yet another round of handwringing about the polarized state of our political system. And as predictable as the laments about why we can't find more common ground is the almost universal presumption in the mainstream media that both sides are equally responsible for the current state of affairs.
Illustrative of the realities of political polarization has been coverage of Snowe's work on health care reform. Though news reports have highlighted her efforts to "work across the aisle" on the issue, they've downplayed the fact that she ultimately voted against a legislative package that, in many of its key features, was drawn up by the conservative Heritage Foundation and represented what was a respectable position within the Republican Party on health care just a few years ago but is now vilified as a sinister, socialist assault on our liberty.
Snowe's ultimate position on health care reform reflects a larger fact about polarization in America that the mainstream media is loathe to acknowledge - that it is highly asymmetrical. A few weeks back, in his widely discussed New Yorker piece on President Obama's political evolution, Ryan Lizza noted that, since 1975, Republicans in the Senate have moved twice as far to the right as Democrats have to the left, based upon the most comprehensive database in political science for evaluating officeholders' ideological positions. And in the House, Republicans have moved six times farther to the right than Democrats have moved to the left since 1975. That same database, the brainchild of Keith Poole and Howard Rosenthal, scores Obama as the least liberal Democratic President since World War II. Funny that, given the endless histrionics from across the right-wing universe about the Kenyan socialist revolutionary who is said to occupy the Oval Office. Emblematic of the extraordinarily reflexive habits of mind of the mainstream media Lizza, having already acknowledged data that shows polarization skews clearly to the right, later analogized that though American politics is normally contested between the forty yard lines (i.e. it's historically been a moderate's game), the parties have now each retreated to their own ten yard lines. How that squares with the skewed realities of polarization previously noted, the author never explains.
There are several factors that explain and reflect this skewed polarization. As Marc Hetherington and I argued in Authoritarianism and Polarization in American Politics, political conflict in the last two decades has come to be dominated by opposed worldviews, based on fundamentally different personality types. Individuals scoring high in authoritarianism have increasingly migrated to the Republican Party and now comprise a decisive part of the GOP's base, whereas the substantial number of Republicans who were low authoriarians twenty years ago have largely left the party. Those high authoritarians who now comprise the core of the GOP are intolerant of ambiguity and have a much greater need to see the world in black and white terms; are suspicious of out groups that they see as a threat to the social order, such as gays, immigrants, Muslims and so on; and are far more likely to process information selectively to conform to their worldview. These findings, which are powerfully supported in a wide range of studies, including ours, are consistent with broader findings about the contemporary right in America. For example, polls show that those on the right express far less willingness to compromise than do moderates and liberals. And as Chris Mooney has been writing about for years, Republicans have engaged in a wide-ranging war on science consistent with American conservatives' growing rejection of and antipathy to widely accepted facts, scientific and otherwise. This is reflected in the construction on the right of an entire alternative information universe, one in which facts are repeatedly distorted and conspiracy theories repeatedly trumpeted.
In sum, the GOP base today is 1) now dominated by folks who are intolerant of many different kinds of out groups 2) unalterably hostile to science and 3) contemptuous of compromise. In those areas of American life in which the public has clearly shifted in a more progressive direction in recent decades, on issues like expansion of health care, gay rights and women's reproductive rights, today's GOP is fighting an evermore full-throated battle to reverse the sands of time. By contrast, where the center of gravity of American politics has shifted to the right - on war and peace, the erosion of civil liberties and the metastasis of our national security state and in terms of tax policies that favor the wealthy - the Democratic party has either eagerly signed on or largely capitulated.
The Olympia Snowes of the world can complain all they want about the lack of middle ground. And the mainstream media can continue to whine about a lack of bi-partisanship. But these plaints misapprehend fundamentally the dynamics of American politics. Right-wing extremism has gone mainstream in today's GOP and not just via the Tea Party, as is evident almost every time Rick Santorum opens his mouth or Romney repudiates yet another of his formerly moderate positions. We're polarized largely because one party has simply gone off the deep end.
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In reality, there is only one party preventing Congress from doing the things that are necessary to help the economy and put people back to work.
And Sen. Snowe is leaving it.
The 14 characteristics are:
1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial, ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; labor unions; socialists, advocates of the poor, community organizers etc.
The wealthy elite, the industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.
10. Labor Power is Suppressed Unions are demonized and persecuted. Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.
11. Disdain for Intellectuals, educators and the Arts
Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Ironically the plutocracy and partisan leaders are overwhelmingly the product of these same revered institutions of higher learning. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.
The 14 characteristics are:
1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.
Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial, ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; labor unions; socialists, advocates of the poor, community organizers etc.
4. Supremacy of the Military
Even when there are widespread domestic economic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.
The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to abortion is high, as is homophobia and anti-gay legislation and national policy.
6. Controlled Mass Media
Sometimes an element of, or the totality of media is directly controlled by the government or partisans, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship and misrepresentation by these entities, especially in war time or in the midst of a political season, is very common.
Obama has been miserably more similar to Bush than different....Obama lied to us on all of his key 2008 platform items...such as the Bush tax cuts and getting us out of Iraq by 2009 to name just 2.
He hasn't done squat to fis the banks...in fact, they are bigger now than when he took office. He hasn't done squat on BP and the oil spill and we still don't have an energy strategy that gets this nation off of being dependent on Exxon.
The Repubs are a disaster....and Obama (Odummer) aint much better.