Nothing throws America’s divisions into stark relief quite like having Donald Trump in the White House. But Mr. Trump is an effect of polarization as much as a cause. We’ve been growing apart politically for decades.
Data from Gallup show wide and growing divergence across numerous issues between 2003 and 2023. Nowadays, 85% of Democrats but only 30% of Republicans think the government should ensure that everyone has healthcare, a gap that grew 24 points during those two decades. The notion that the federal government has too much power now gains support from 73% of Republicans and 31% of Democrats, a 51-point shift—yes, the partisan split was slightly in the other direction during the George W. Bush administration. The split on whether abortion should always be legal has widened 30 points, on whether human activity is the main cause of global warming by 33 points.
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Roland G. Fryer, Jr., a John A. Paulson Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, is Professor of Economics at Harvard University, an entrepreneur, and co-founder of Equal Opportunity Ventures.
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