The Growing Ideological Divide in American Politics: A Senior Columnist’s Perspective

The political landscape in America is shifting, with the middle ground becoming increasingly difficult to find as the two major parties move further towards their respective ideologies. According to a recent column by Alan I. Abramowitz, a senior columnist with Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, Democrats have shifted further left and Republicans further right since 2012.

Abramowitz’s research, which used a scale to measure the distance between voters’ political beliefs, showed that the ideological gap between Democrats and Republicans has significantly widened over the past 50 years. In 1972, the parties were only one point apart on the scale, but by 2020, Democrats scored 2.8 compared to Republicans’ 5.5, indicating a significant move away from the political center.

Interestingly, Abramowitz found that Democratic voters have moved slightly further left than Republicans have to the right in the past eight years. This shift has been more pronounced among white Democrats, but both white and nonwhite Democrats have moved towards the left. For the first time in recent history, partisan-ideological congruence is as strong among Democrats as it is among Republicans.

While Democrats are still somewhat less likely to identify as liberal compared to Republicans identifying as conservative, they are more consistent in their liberalism than Republicans are in their conservatism. On specific policy issues like abortion, Democrats are more likely to take the liberal position than Republicans are to take the conservative position.

Abramowitz’s research highlights the growing polarization in American politics and the challenges of finding common ground in an increasingly divided political landscape.