Escaping the Partisan Doom Loop
By Sean Evans, Chair and Professor of Political Science
Jul 16, 2024 -
After the failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump this weekend, many people are highlighting our toxic political discourse as a possible cause. But if we are to successfully lower the political temperature, we need to understand how the political culture became so toxic first.
In the 1970s, the two major parties began to sort or align with the party that reflected their ideological interests. Liberals moved to the Democratic Party and conservatives moved to the Republican Party. This led the parties to offer more distinct positions on polarizing cultural issues. Voters noticed and began to sort based on race and religion. Democrats became the party of minorities, liberals, and seculars while Republicans became the party of Whites, conservatives, and the religiously observant.
The result of this sorting is that we have fewer cross-cutting identities. Fifty years ago, one could be conservative and a Democrat. These competing identities muted our political identity because different identities pushed us in different political directions. These cross-pressures also helped us see political opponents as normal people because we interacted with those individuals.
Today, social sorting means that our ideological, racial, and cultural identity align with our political identity making party affiliation our primary social identity. Instead of cross-cutting pressures, our identities reinforce our partisanship. Moreover, knowing the other groups in our and the other party signals who are our allies and opponents. Naturally, we tend to favor our group and oppose the other group.
This sorting begins the partisan doom loop of increasingly more extreme language and calls for radical action. As the two parties continue to take opposing positions on issues, the more different the other side appears. This difference makes who wins more important which raises the stakes of politics. Slowly, our emotions begin to dominate our rational thinking. We begin viewing our political opponents as extremists but progressively come to see them as enemies and threats which makes it easier to dehumanize them.
Moreover, both sides live in different media echo chambers that provide different political “facts” and reinforce the insular “us-versus-them” thinking. We can no longer agree to disagree and compromise because everything is an “existential” threat. Compromise is weakness and giving in to the enemy. Instead, our side must win. Otherwise, our democracy and nation will radically change. This fear justifies more radical action to enact one’s policies and stop the other side from winning.
Democrats see Trump and MAGA voters as a threat to democracy because Trump lied about winning in 2020 and tried to prevent the transfer of power on January 6th, Republicans are suppressing the vote via photo voter ID, a conservative Supreme Court is taking away rights and protecting Trump, and Project 2025 is an authoritarian roadmap. If you believe this, then it is logical to pack the Supreme Court, nationalize election laws, and end the filibuster to pass a partisan agenda.
Republicans see Democrats weaponizing government through multiple prosecutions of Trump, changing the voting rules in 2020 to maximize Democratic votes, refusing to enforce laws they oppose, imposing “woke” ideology on Americans, and using a Deep State to thwart Trump’s will. If you believe this, Republicans should fire 10,000 federal employees and replace them with Trump loyalists, prosecute Biden and other Democrats, deport millions of illegal immigrants, and enforce traditional morality.
While most people reject these hyperbolic claims, the most politically involved are trapped in the doom loop and are more likely to accept them. Unfortunately, these individuals have the most influence in politics.
The problem is that escalating polarization actually threatens democracy. The two most important norms of democracy are recognizing the legitimacy of one’s opponents (mutual toleration) and leaders not abusing their powers, even when it is legal (institutional forbearance). Yet, when the other side is an existential threat, they must be stopped at all costs. Once this mentality takes over, polarization spirals until democracy breaks down.
So, how do we escape the doom loop? We need to find ways to interact with political opponents in non-competitive environments so we can see them as human. We need to read and watch political news from differing political perspectives to hear other points of view, so “facts” are not relative. The media needs to stop “nutpicking” by focusing on the most extreme members (e.g., the Squad and Marjorie Taylor Green) as representatives of the party. We need to focus on meta-identities like American so we can see opposing partisans as opponents instead of enemies. We could also consider multi-member legislative districts so a more ideologically diverse group of citizens could represent us instead of extreme partisans.
One benefit of democracy is that we resolve our conflicts with ballots, not bullets. For all our sakes, we need to escape the partisan doom loop and tone down our political language.