The Republican Evolution by Kenneth Janda

Author:Kenneth Janda
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Columbia University Press

THE RISE OF TRIBAL POLITICS

In the past, American citizens proudly associated themselves with one or the other of the nation’s major parties. Republicans boasted of their “Grand Old Party,” and Democrats praised Franklin Delano Roosevelt for leading the country out of the Great Depression. Given that Republicans were often employers and Democrats their employees, Republican pride was biased toward wealth. Republicans bonded in boardrooms and golf courses. Excepting some university faculties, upper-class Democrats enjoyed few opportunities to bond over their common party identification.

What happened around 2000 that caused some Republican and Democratic partisans to behave like political tribes and make “we-them” distinctions of the opposition? People smarter than I am have tried to account for the rise in tribal politics. Briefly, they cite five major factors:

1.  Decades of migration within the United States that have “sorted” people into homogeneous communities: In his 2008 book The Big Sort, Bill Bishop found that over time, prosperous and economically secure Americans who moved “reordered their lives around their values, their tastes, and their beliefs … clustering in communities of like-mindedness, and not just geographically.”23 Churches, voluntary associations, and political parties all became more homogeneous.

2.  A decline in membership in the kinds of civic associations that promote a sense of community: In his 2000 book Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam documents the decline of social clubs and fraternal organizations that cross-cut social divisions, bolster democratic institutions, and foster feelings of community.24 Two decades later, in The Upswing, he returned to the topic and summarized the situation: “Organizational records suggest that for the first two thirds of the twentieth century Americans’ involvement in civic associations of all sorts rose steadily, stalled only temporarily by the Great Depression.”25 Citizens today have fewer civic connections.

3.  The growth of cable television and an increase in viewers’ choices: which news, or no news? Before 1980, only three television networks—ABC, CBS, and NBC—broadcast political news across America. Using public airways, networks were subject to censorship. Gatekeepers tended to choose the same events to report, and all three networks interrupted regularly programmed entertainment to cover major presidential addresses. All viewers, regardless of religion, race, region, or party, were exposed to essentially the same information. By 2000, more than half of all households had cable television, which did not use public airwaves and offered uncensored entertainment and different political news. Some cable channels selected and reported stories slanted to viewers’ biases. Cable also offered the chance to avoid such news entirely and watch entertainment exclusively. As Samuel Kernell and Laurie Rice found, audiences for presidential addresses not only shrank but became more homogeneous as presidents were “preaching to a choir” of their partisans.26

4.  The end of the “Fairness Doctrine” in broadcasting and the rise of talk radio and then Fox News: In 1949, the Federal Communications Commission required television and radio broadcasts to adhere to its “Fairness Doctrine.” Broadcasters had to discuss controversial topics honestly and equitably and had to provide contrasting views in a balanced way. That rule ended in 1987 under the Reagan administration. “Almost

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