WASHINGTON — Across the political spectrum, from right to left and in the middle, Americans have become more doctrinaire and ideological in their political views, according to a major study by the Pew Research Center.
“Staunch Conservatives” and “Solid Liberals,” two groups identified in the study with strong allegiance to the Republican and Democratic parties, are more ideologically consistent internally while sharing almost nothing in common with one another on major political issues. Those findings are emblematic of the deep polarization that now shapes American politics.
Among the increasingly growing segment of Americans who identify with neither party and call themselves independents, there are fewer moderates. Many in the “middle” hold strong ideological views.
The study concluded that three groups in the center of the Pew typology “have very little in common, aside from their avoidance of partisan labels.”
“What we see is a much bigger and increasingly diverse middle,” said Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew center. “What’s striking about it is that they’re not so moderate. People in the middle have some strong, well-defined ideological points of view.”
The Pew study offers a political typology of the nation. It is the fifth such study since Pew began the project in 1987 and, as with past studies, provides a wealth of data and insights into the state of politics.
The Pew center breaks down the current electorate into eight politically engaged groups, along with a ninth that is largely disengaged, based on their party identification, values and attitudes on major issues.
To underscore the diversity of views among those in the middle of the typology, the study points to what it calls Libertarians and New Coalition Democrats. Those who populate these groups share demographic similarities — including education and affluence — but hold sharply divergent political views, especially on the role of government.
Preview of 2012?
The study highlights fissures that cause tensions within each party’s base. More broadly, the document points at the coming clash next year that will test the staying power of a conservative movement that flexed its muscles in 2010 against the strength of the coalition Barack Obama assembled when he won the White House in 2008.
Michael Dimock, a Pew center associate director, pointed to three examples of the larger gulf between the most liberal Democrats and the most conservative Republicans since the previous study, in 2005.
On the question of whether government should do more to help the needy, even if that means bigger budget deficits, or whether government can’t afford to provide that assistance, there was a gap of 65 percentage points between the two groups. Six years ago, that gap was 52 points.
On the question of whether corporations make too much profit, the gap today is 64 points, compared with 56 six years ago.
The biggest change came on the question of whether government is almost always wasteful and inefficient. Six years ago, the gap was 20 points, and today, it’s 68 points. Dimock cautioned that part of the reason the gap is much larger now is that conservatives were less critical of government when Republicans controlled the White House and the Congress.
Foreign policy fades
When the Pew center last undertook a mapping of the electorate, foreign policy represented the major division between Republicans and Democrats. Today, many of those differences still exist, but foreign-policy issues have faded in significance. (The study was completed before the killing of Osama bin Laden on Sunday.) Today, the most significant divisions that shape the electorate are on the size and scope of government and on Obama himself.
“Views about government have become the big divider,” Kohut said. “But you could add to that . . . views about Obama are the big divider.”
He added that the reaction to Obama’s presidency has been the inverse of what he expected. “He did just the opposite of what I expected. He didn’t galvanize strong support on the Democratic side,” Kohut said. “He got the conservatives’ and Republicans’ blood flowing.”
In addition to two Republican groups, Pew identified three Democratic groups and three groups not affiliated with either party, as well as one largely disengaged.
As a practical matter, however, the eight engaged groups together have divided somewhat evenly between Democratic and Republican candidates in their voting behavior in the past two elections.
