{"id":6017,"date":"2004-06-06T23:02:58","date_gmt":"2004-06-07T06:02:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2004\/06\/06\/party-time.html"},"modified":"2004-06-06T23:02:58","modified_gmt":"2004-06-07T06:02:58","slug":"party_time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/06\/06\/party_time.html","title":{"rendered":"Party time"},"content":{"rendered":"

A rather depressing NYT Op-Ed from David Brooks about how partisanship blinds everyone<\/a>, regardless of party.<\/p>\n

Moreover, Green, Palmquist and Schickler continue, people do not choose parties by comparing platforms and then figuring out where the nation’s interests lie. Drawing on a vast range of data, these political scientists argue that party attachment is more like attachment to a religious denomination or a social club. People have stereotypes in their heads about what Democrats are like and what Republicans are like, and they gravitate toward the party made up of people like themselves.
\nOnce they have formed an affiliation, people bend their philosophies and their perceptions of reality so they become more and more aligned with members of their political tribe.<\/p>\n

Which perceptions lead to misperceptions that can influence rational decisionmaking.<\/p>\n

For example, the Princeton political scientist Larry Bartels has pointed to survey data collected after the Reagan and Clinton presidencies. In 1988, voters were asked if they thought the nation’s inflation rate had fallen during the Reagan presidency.
\nIn fact, it did. The inflation rate fell from 13.5 percent to 4.1 percent. But only 8 percent of strong Democrats said the rate had fallen. Fifty percent of partisan Democrats believed that inflation had risen under Reagan. Strong Republicans had a much sunnier and more accurate impression of economic trends. Forty-seven percent said inflation had declined.
\nThen, at the end of the Clinton presidency, voters were asked similar questions about how the country had fared in the previous eight years. This time, it was Republicans who were inaccurate and negative. Democrats were much more positive. Bartels concludes that partisan loyalties have a pervasive influence on how people see the world. They reinforce and exaggerate differences of opinion between Republicans and Democrats.<\/p>\n

Getting back to earlier posts on media bias, is it a matter of biased (left or right) media outlets distorting public opinion, or folks gravitating to media outlets (left or right) that reinforce the opinions they find cognitively comfortable?<\/p>\n

A more disturbing question is, if folks shape their opinions to the group they choose to be with, how does that affect basic democratic principles of individual decision-making and personal responsibility?<\/p>\n

(via Roger L. Simon<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A rather depressing NYT Op-Ed from David Brooks about how partisanship blinds everyone, regardless of party. Moreover, Green, Palmquist and Schickler continue, people do not choose parties by comparing platforms…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6106,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/05\/18\/stress.html","url_meta":{"origin":6017,"position":0},"title":"Stress","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 18-May-04 10:16pm","format":false,"excerpt":"In these difficult times -- political campaigns, church turmoil, the war in Iraq -- stress can take a toll on all of us, warping our perceptions and making us discern...","rel":"","context":"In "Personality Tests"","block_context":{"text":"Personality Tests","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/personal\/personality-tests"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30043,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/08\/30\/who-watches-political-conventions.html","url_meta":{"origin":6017,"position":1},"title":"Who watches political conventions?","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 30-Aug-12 9:55pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I suspect it's people who actually remember when there was some drama to them, when there was some uncertainty about who might actually get the nomination, when they weren't just 3-4-day political lovefests \/ commercials touting the Official Party Line.Such as ... 65+-year-olds.And, honestly, though I have fairly partisan beliefs,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38820,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/26\/perceptions-points-of-view-and-garlic.html","url_meta":{"origin":6017,"position":2},"title":"Perceptions, Points of View, and Garlic","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 26-Sep-13 6:59pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A very nice look at how the way you look at things really does change how you react to them. Embedded Link \u00bb Blog Archive \u00bb The Garlic Ice Cream Incident Last weekend was the Pikes Peak Urban Gardens' garlic festival. It wasn't big, and there wasn't as much garlic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1581,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/12\/07\/okay_heres_a_re.html","url_meta":{"origin":6017,"position":3},"title":"Okay, here’s a “real” quiz","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 7-Dec-01 3:08pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The folks at the Political Compass have put together, well, the Political Compass. This quiz lets you find yourself both on the economic left-right access, but also on authoritarian-libertarian axis....","rel":"","context":"In "Personality Tests"","block_context":{"text":"Personality Tests","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/personal\/personality-tests"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30838,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/24\/political-party-time.html","url_meta":{"origin":6017,"position":4},"title":"(Political) Party Time","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 24-Oct-12 8:45pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Looking at the ballot, I get to vote for the Presidential Electors for:American ConstitutionDemocraticRepublicanLibertarianGreenSocialist, USAJusticePeace and FreedomSocialist WorkersAmerica'sSocialism and LiberationAmerican Third PositionUnaffiliatedObjectivistWe the PeopleSocialist EqualityThat's a lot of parties going on. \u00a0 Hmmm. I sense a blog research project ... Google+: View post on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30837,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/24\/political-party-time-the-long-form.html","url_meta":{"origin":6017,"position":5},"title":"(Political) Party Time – the Long Form!","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 24-Oct-12 11:59pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So who are all those \"third\" parties out there (on the Colorado presidential ballot, at least), and can I get official summaries of what they stand for in a short sentence paragraph? \u00a0Let's find out! 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