Ezra Klein’s Why We’re Polarized is an enlightening, smart and thought provoking look at how America, and its 2 main political parties, got so polarized.
Klein explores several key narratives including the psychology of group think and identity; a nation that has increasingly sorted itself geographically and ideologically; the nationalization of news and politics; the decline of local and regional news; a declining and enraged power elite of white, aging, Christians; a 50 year campaign by reactionaries to create a culture war based on grievances and abstractions, and a 24/7 cable news and talk radio cycle that exists to stoke division and get attention for itself.
The book begins with the story about a group of political scientists in the late 1950s who proposed that the two parties, Democrats and Republicans, were too similar and that the public is better served with a less homogenous and more polarized party system.
Klein then delves into some studies around evolutionary psychology, social science, group allegiance and self identity. He presents several example studies of how easily humans sort into us vs them group loyalty and how group identity is stronger than ideology or reason. He cites several studies that prove that fear and hate of out-groups is more powerful than loyalty to your in-group.
He then argues that Trump is not an anomaly but rather a natural outgrowth of the Republican movement of the past 40 years. A party whose power is increasingly reliant on a declining white, aging, conservative, Christian demographic which is terrified of losing power and privilege. “When you're accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression”.
Trump’s latching onto grievances of race and political correctness fulfill a fearful minority’s fantasies of restoration and renewal.
Klein explores how the electorate was more ideologically similar across parties 50 years ago when ticket splitting was more common and compromises easier to forge. There were also more diverse cross sections of cultural difference within each party. That changed with the civil rights act of 1964 when the southern Democrat “Dixiecrats” moved to the Republican party under the nomination of Barry Goldwater who was opposed to the act. Yes, polarization has a lot to do with racism.
The geographic sorting of the nation which began in the 1960s and accelerated in the 1990s concentrated older, white Americans into the exurbs and the younger, better educated, more diverse Americans into the suburbs and cities. This phenomenon gave the Republicans an opportunity to better target their constituents and create identity narratives that weren’t about compromise and cooperation, but rather grievance and fear of the other side.
Democrats grew their portion of the electorate by maintaining a strong sense of diversity and compromise but were disadvantaged because of disproportionate Senate representation in rural states. So as younger Americans began concentrating in cities, their political power weakened as a result of Senate rules, gerrymandering and the electoral college.
Over the past 20 years, political campaign demographers began re-defining the dividing line between Republican vs Democrat - those living in areas with less than 900 people per square mile leaned Republican, and areas with more than 900 people per square mile leaned Democrat. In Jonathan's Haidt's book The Righteous Mind - he called it the Whole Foods vs Cracker Barrel divide. Where you ate or shopped for groceries became a bigger indicator of your political party than income, education or many other traditional metrics.
Klein then discusses the explosion of cable news and the decline of local reporting. This elevated national politics and politicians which made obsolete the old adage - all politics is local. This also forced politicians to devalue compromise and promote winner-take-all mindsets. This had a greater effect on the Republican party being their constituents were a declining electorate.
Dems also rely on a much broader set of news sources, not one source exceeding 15% of their total news consumption, whereas Repubs rely almost exclusively on Fox News and a few similar reinforcers in talk radio. This leads to a Republican party with a more narrow and homogenous view of the world and reinforces the concept of group identity and grievance.
Klein argues that the Republican party is well aware of its demographic challenges - the average white American is 58 years old, the average black American 27, the average Asian American - 29, the average Hispanic American - 11! This reality forced the Republican party to re-evaulate their strategies during GW Bush’s first term with compassionate conservatism, outreach to black and latino voters, immigration reform and other shifts. But with Obama’s election, the extreme wing of the right pursued more aggressive and desperate measures to slow the tide (Tea Party). Then along came Trump, who saw an opportunity to exploit that fear and be the fighter that they needed all along. Even evangelical Christians rationalized their support of a clearly immoral nominee by believing that in these desperate times they needed a street fighter to bring the America they grew up in back. Make America Great - Again.
Klein also proposes that the gradual weakening of parties and the growth of partisanship is another reason for our current polarization. Back in the day, prior to the caucus and primary process, party officials had more influence in selecting their candidates (smoke filled back rooms) - Klein believes that a candidate like Trump would have never gotten near the Republican nomination. We’ve flipped from a system that selected candidates who were broadly appealing to party officials to a system that selects candidates who are adored by base voters (primary voters).
Klein also defends PAC money which he says promotes moderates, while individual donations promote polarization and extremists. Individual donors want to fall in love or express their hate. Institutional donors are more pragmatic - they want moderates who can get things done.
Klein proposes a set of possible solutions to our current polarization including:
Eliminate the filibuster - which allows the minority to hamstring the majority
Get rid of the Electoral College
Control gerrymandering - promote proportional representation
Consider Ranked Choice voting
Have electoral zones represented by multiple members of congress
Make 3rd parties viable
Give Wash DC and Puerto Rico congressional representation / statehood
Make voting easier, not harder
Klein believes that with these changes the Republican party will be forced to adapt, modernize, be more competitive and less reliant on outrage, culture wars and electorate map manipulations.
Overall I found the book well written, eye opening and engaging. It follows other books I’ve read in this genre including Bill Bishop’s The Big Sort, Jon Meacham’s The Soul of America and Jonathan Judis’s The Populist Explosion. I felt the book lost its way a bit towards the end when the author was struggling to figure out how to wrap up his thesis and propose solutions. But in the end, Klein did tie up his loose ends and finished with a sensible set of policy proposals.
Highly recommended!
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Top reviews from other countries
Ram
Simply amazing, masterful, insightful, transformational
Reviewed in Spain on August 29, 2022Alex s
Explanation to political absurdity
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 16, 2022
KB
Literally the Best Book I’ve Read on the Causes of the Current U.S. Political Environment
Reviewed in Canada on August 15, 2020
Christian Riedhammer
A thoughtful historical and psychological explanation for polarization trends in the US.
Reviewed in Germany on October 24, 2020