Oh, "two of many factors"?
Yet the factors you emphasize, conveniently enough, are those two—and without evidence. 
-
-
Devil's Advocate: Groups who feel disenfranchised seek out radical ways to exercise political power. If conservatives felt they had no voice in govt and media, the creation of a radical conservative splinter group was inevitable (Tea Party), which then consumes the GOP's core.
1 reply 1 retweet 2 likes -
Perhaps, but funny how to conservatives the radicalism of the Tea Party was just patriots "taking back their country," even though Tea Party tactics were, if anything, more extreme than the left's now, while milder protests now by the left leave them clutching their pearls.
3 replies 2 retweets 13 likes -
Replying to @gorskon @c0nc0rdance and
Yea, I mean we know reactionaries are reacting to what they perceive to be threats. But they also make up or exaggerate threats, because that is their fuel. Blaming the left for this is silly as there is no way for them not to piss off the right other than stop existing.
2 replies 0 retweets 3 likes -
Replying to @chrisiousity @gorskon and
I don't think blaming individuals makes any sense. There's a worrying trend in political polarization, ideological silos. It's unlike what we've seen in the past. http://www.people-press.org/2014/06/12/political-polarization-in-the-american-public/ …pic.twitter.com/P5COZpDUjk
2 replies 0 retweets 1 like -
Replying to @c0nc0rdance @chrisiousity and
I don't know how to read this figure without some kind of scale on the x-axis, in other presentations of the same phenomenon it's been the right pulling away with an actual movement of the median and democrats only tightening their distribution around a fixed point.
1 reply 0 retweets 1 like -
Replying to @MarkHoofnagle @chrisiousity and
There's a nice animated version of the same plot at the Pew Center site linked above... it does show the pendulum swings rather clearly. The Democrats showed a more centrists starting point, although I think Pew made the point of breaking out "Southern Democrats" as heterogenouspic.twitter.com/PXpLGW80dC
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @c0nc0rdance @MarkHoofnagle and
ibid. "The share of Democrats who are liberal on all or most value dimensions has nearly doubled from just 30% in 1994 to 56% today. The share who are consistently liberal has quadrupled from just 5% to 23% over the past 20 years."
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @c0nc0rdance @chrisiousity and
I guess the problem here is that this is self-reported "liberal" positions rather than objectively weighing responses to specific issues. I think issues which used to be nonpartisan have become so - like access to birth control, or even racial equality.
2 replies 0 retweets 1 like -
Replying to @MarkHoofnagle @c0nc0rdance and
I think the democrats have maintained a pretty-consistent platform on many issues and these are now perceived as more liberal whereas 20 years ago I might have thought them to be quite moderate.
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
The Overton window has indeed shifted considerably to the right since I was in high school. Today, Ronald Reagan couldn't even win a Republican primary; he'd be considered way too liberal.
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.