The Rise of Partisanship

[The Economist]

I think the notion that cultural issues being the divider and the media being partisan is a little off. To start with, our partisanship didn’t begin to reach these kinds of levels till the 1990s. Even to the end of the George H.W. Bush administration, you had a certain level of bipartisanship and amicability.

I think the real culprit is the rise of easy social media and communication. It’s now virtually so easy to have a blog up and running, to basically spread a meme within hours, and to have that reach the cable networks and then simply spread the meme. Back in the 1980s and the 1970s, it took a bit longer.

The other issue is that the New Deal era of 1932-1981 wasn’t some halcyon bipartisan era. It’s just the fact that Democrats had no real opposition for almost 50 years. The general prevailing attitude was deeply liberal and that’s been challenged since then. (Although even under Reagan and the elder Bush, there was still nowhere near the modern day level of partisanship).