WP OP-ED: THE MYTH OF THE MIDDLE

The Myth of the Middle
By Alan Abramowitz and Bill Bishop
Thursday, March 1, 2007; Page A17

....The Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES) surveyed more than 24,000 Americans who voted in 2006. The Internet-based survey compiled by researchers at 30 universities produced a sample that almost perfectly matched the national House election results: 54 percent of the respondents reported voting for a Democrat, while 46 percent said they voted for a Republican. The demographic characteristics of the voters surveyed also closely matched those in the 2006 national exit poll....The CCES survey asked about 14 national issues: the war in Iraq (the invasion and the troops), abortion (and partial birth abortion), stem cell research, global warming, health insurance, immigration, the minimum wage, liberalism and conservatism, same-sex marriage, privatizing Social Security, affirmative action, and capital gains taxes. Not surprisingly, some of the largest differences between Democrats and Republicans were over the Iraq war. Fully 85 percent of those who voted for Democratic House candidates felt that it had been a mistake to invade Iraq, compared with only 18 percent of voters who cast ballots for Republicans.

But the divisions between the parties weren't limited to Iraq. They extended to every issue in the survey. For example, 69 percent of Democratic voters chose the most strongly pro-choice position on the issue of abortion, compared with 20 percent of Republican voters; only 16 percent of Democratic voters supported a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, while 80 percent of Republican voters did; and 91 percent of Democratic voters favored governmental action to reduce global warming, compared with 27 percent of Republican voters.

When we combined voters' answers to the 14 issue questions to form a liberal-conservative scale (answers were divided into five equivalent categories based on overall liberalism vs. conservatism), 86 percent of Democratic voters were on the liberal side of the scale while 80 percent of Republican voters were on the conservative side. Only 10 percent of all voters were in the center. The visual representation of the nation's voters isn't a nicely shaped bell, with most voters in the moderate middle. It's a sharp V.

The evidence from this survey isn't surprising; nor are the findings new. For the past three decades, the major parties and the electorate have grown more divided -- in what they think, where they live and how they vote. It may be comforting to believe our problems could be solved if only those vile politicians in Washington would learn to get along. The source of the country's division, however, is nestled much closer to home.

(Alan Abramowitz is a political science professor at Emory University. Bill Bishop is a journalist in Austin who is writing a book on political segregation.)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/28/AR2007022801817.html

voting for Dems though. In most races, most of the Dems voted for the Dem candidate, most of the Reps voted for the Rep candidate. This time around, most independents voted for the Dem candidate.

For example, in VA, 93% of Dems voted for Webb, 94% of Reps voted for Allen, 56% of independents voted for Webb. Dems were only 36% of the voters, Reps were 39%, indys were 26%.

politically interested and engaged is a partisan, and labels themselves as to party. But so many people have no interest or awareness. I don't know if they are the new "independents," who are swayed by something that happens during a campaign. I don't know if they're truly in the "middle," or just haven't focused.

Our enemies have tried to do this for 200+ years. Bush and his cohorts have perfected the methodology over
many decades.

Part of the psychology is created by demonizing the "other". I doubt the reality of the divide would be so
dramatic without the control factors of RW media.

If 40% of the voters are liberal Democrats, and 40% are conservative Republicans, then everything depends on how the other 20% split. Even if they are a minority of the electorate.

I was interested to see that around 20% of Republican voters agree with us on the big issues like Iraq, abortion and global warming. Let's bring them over to our side! :)