Fmr. Gov. NickG
NickG
Junior Chimp
Posts: 8,201
Political Matrix E: -8.00, S: -3.49
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« on: December 09, 2004, 06:46:55 PM » |
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« edited: December 09, 2004, 06:49:01 PM by Gov. NickG »
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I think a lot of the talk about being more polarized today stems from the fact that we seem more divided by geography, both in terms of North v. South and urban vs. rural, particularly looking at the direction of the Senate in recent years. But certainly Reagan was a very polarizing figure in 1980 on an individual level. I'm not sure what your point it.
Anderson ran as a moderate in 1980....remember, he was a Republican. And I'm sure Reagan got a much higher % of the Democratic vote than Bush got.
I think "polarized" in this case refers to one's presidential vote corresponding very strongly to one's state, one's Senate vote, one's party ID, one's views on the war, one's view on gay rights, etc. There was a lot more cross-party voting in 1980 than today. And a lot more people voted for Democratic Senators and Congressmen while voting Republican for President in 1980 than today.
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