US political polarization at highest in 25 years

By Kasim Ileri

WASHINGTON

Political polarization between Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. is at its strongest that at any point in the last quarter-century.

The findings are part of a new study released as the country is in the middle of a presidential election year.

Research by the non-partisan Pew Research Center on Wednesday found that "majorities in both parties express not just unfavorable but very unfavorable views of the other party."

Fifty-five percent of Democrats and 58 percent of Republicans view the other party as “very unfavorable.”

The rates were 21 percent to 26 percent, respectively, in 1994 when the first such survey was conducted by Pew.

In 2000, the study said the ratio was approximately 23 percent to 26 percent, respectively.

The study found that 65 percent of Republicans and 63 percent of Democrats believe they have “less in common” with somebody from the other party.

Nearly 70 percent of Democrats described Republicans as "closed-minded” while nearly 67 percent of Democrats described their own party as more open-minded than the rest of America, according to the survey.

Forty-two percent of Democrats described Republicans as “dishonest”, 35 percent said they were “immoral” and 33 percent said “unintelligent”.

Closed mindedness was at the top of Republicans’ list as 52 percent consider Democrats “closed-minded”, 47 percent as “immoral”, 46 percent as “lazy” and 45 percent “dishonest”.

Despite unfavorable descriptions of each another, only 31 percent of Democrats and 27 percent of Republicans believe partisanship would affect their relationships with those from the other party.

The study also found that for those who don’t identify with either party, the motivation to lean toward a particular party stems from “the harm that the opposing party’s policies cause the country.”

Such a motivation is 55 percent among independents who lean toward Republicans and 51 percent who lean toward Democrats who said the other party’s policies was the driving force.