America's Most Overlooked Political Divide Is Also Its Most Revealing - New York Times

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https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/22/opinion/christian-nationalists-polling-divide.html?campaign_id=9&emc=edit_nn_20240325&instance_id=118440&nl=the-morning&regi_id=114618535&segment_id=161683&te=1&user_id=7b30c25a52c628f3418110b48a6906dd

I'm in the process of asking people about politics. And the results I'm getting resonate with this editorial. The people on political boards are polarized. But they are the minority. The rest of the country, not so much. So taking the pulse of the nation based on what's happening on-line is horrifically skewed.

I’m reminded of one of the most illuminating studies I’ve ever read. It came from the Hidden Tribes of America project, which was put together by a group called More in Common. It surveyed 8,000 Americans to try to explore their attitudes and conflicts beyond the red-blue divide, and one of its central conclusions is critical to understanding the modern moment: Only a minority of Americans are truly active in political debates, and they’re exhausting and alienating the rest of the country.

One-third of Democrats post political content on social media; two-thirds do not. And the differences between the two groups were significant. Online Democrats were far more liberal, disproportionately white and far more likely to engage in activism, such as attending a protest or donating to a candidate.

Don’t think for a moment that this dichotomy exists only on the left. More in Common found that both wings of American life — the highly polarized left and the highly polarized right — shared characteristics. For example, the most polarized conservatives are also disproportionately white and are almost twice as likely to list politics as a hobby.

Together, these polarized wings are the most united, most tribal and least persuadable Americans. Or, as More in Common put it, members of the wings are “the most certain of their positions.” The rest of Americans — the other two-thirds — constitute an “exhausted majority.” They’re deeply discontented with American politics, and many are also largely disengaged.

...This kind of exhaustion magnifies our political inertia.... The decision to unplug from the news is often quite rational and perhaps even prudent — compounding the problem. Disengagement is a reasonable response to the unreasonable vitriol that dominates our political conversations. Weighing in on politics online or even watching it passively is like voluntarily choosing to receive an electric shock.