Myddle SysterDec 2, 2022
Conrad Hackett 

US: Pew Research Center analysis finds that Democrats and Republicans in Congress are now farther apart ideologically than at any time in the past 50 years. Republicans have moved further to the right than Democrats have to the left.

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/03/10/the-polarization-in-todays-congress-has-roots-that-go-back-decades/ #PewResearch

The polarization in today’s Congress has roots that go back decades

On average, Democrats and Republicans are farther apart ideologically today than at any time in the past 50 years.

Pew Research Center
Nov 29, 2022 at 5:08pmWeb
Show threadConrad Hackett Nov 30, 2022

US: On average, Congress has become more conservative over the past five decades, according to #PewResearch analysis.

50 years ago in the House, 144 Republicans were less conservative than the most conservative Democrat, and 52 Dems were less liberal than the most liberal Repub. Since 2002, there’s been no overlap at all between the least liberal Democrats and the least conservative Republicans.

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/03/10/the-polarization-in-todays-congress-has-roots-that-go-back-decades/ @politicalscience

The polarization in today’s Congress has roots that go back decades

On average, Democrats and Republicans are farther apart ideologically today than at any time in the past 50 years.

Pew Research Center
Show threadschoolingdianaNov 30, 2022
@politicalscience @conradhackett is that why so many conservatives were voted out of office this year? The pendulum is already going back the other way. Granted, it takes a lot of time to accurately compile that kind of data and the election hasn’t even been certified in most states.
Show threadJPeckNov 30, 2022
@conradhackett @politicalscience hmm. 2 things come to mind. I am always suspicious of charts 1. What does this represent? Votes that they have made that are conservative or political party? 2. If in fact this data is valid, is this a trend in older established democratic republics? Do they all trend conservative as the nation ages the same as people tend to become more conservative as they age? That would be an interesting find
Show threadKarl Morant 🇨🇦  🖖Nov 30, 2022

@conradhackett @politicalscience

Vote

Show threadTofu GolemNov 30, 2022

@conradhackett @politicalscience
The whole nation has moved very far to the extreme right.

I don't vote for Democrats because I think they will fix anything. I vote for Democrats because they are less fascist than Republicans, and I hope that they will destroy things less effectively.

Show threadAppleNov 30, 2022
@conradhackett @politicalscience Two things. 1) Civil rights legislation shifted conservative Dixiecrats to the GOP around 50 yrs ago. 2) The Vietnam War was a polarizing event that has continued to influence US foreign policy.
Show threadBouriquetNov 30, 2022
@conradhackett @politicalscience Unfortunately averages don’t impact change and they don’t provide a good indicator of political climate (look at average temperature for 24 hrs in the desert vs day/night). Extremes are the points where change occurs (positive or negative) especially in recent times where one party obstructs progressive movement by the other.
Show threadHiFiNov 29, 2022
@conradhackett can you help me with this Overton window please? It appears to have shifted and gotten stuck.
Show threadDoug Baker - Elbows Up! 🇨🇦Nov 29, 2022
@conradhackett That aisle is getting wider and wider.
Show threadA L KatzNov 29, 2022
@conradhackett So - actual data that says "both sides DON'T do it".
Show threadBlueWaterFan 🐴Nov 29, 2022
@Alan @conradhackett the left has barely shifted. The right looks like a ski jump.
Show threadA L KatzNov 29, 2022
@BlueWaterFan @conradhackett The left has always wanted the same thing: the most equality & equity for the most people.
Show threadBlueWaterFan 🐴Nov 29, 2022
@Alan @conradhackett yes! This!
Show threadTofu GolemNov 29, 2022

@conradhackett
Gosh, everything is so polarized now! I wonder what is happening to make both sides just as bad? This is such a mystery. I guess we will never know.

Yes, that was sarcasm.

I'm getting so tired of the "but both sides" dance as America plunges closer and closer to outright fascism.

Show threadnortherngirl65Nov 29, 2022
@conradhackett I wonder why there isn’t a third party in the USA like we have here in 🇨🇦?
Show threadKathy E. Gill 🇺🇦Nov 30, 2022

@northerngirl65 @conradhackett

The parliamentary system, according to political scientists.

Show threadKim Spence-Jones #FBPENov 30, 2022
@northerngirl65 FPTP
Show threadnortherngirl65Nov 30, 2022
@KimSJ what is that?
Show threadKim Spence-Jones #FBPENov 30, 2022
@northerngirl65 First-past-the-post voting. Winner takes all, so you’d better not split the vote for the guys you prefer.
Show threadnortherngirl65Nov 30, 2022
@KimSJ ahhh 🙏👍
Show threadDaniel BrockmanNov 29, 2022

@conradhackett

Can you clarify the metric(s) used for left/right?

(I'm not saying it's wrong, I'm just appealing for help because I've not grasped it yet.)

Show threadKathy E. Gill 🇺🇦Nov 30, 2022

@DanielBrockman @conradhackett

<<The Center’s analysis is based on DW-NOMINATE, a method that uses lawmakers’ roll-call votes to place them in a two-dimensional ideological space. It is designed to produce scores that are comparable across time. This analysis focuses on the first dimension, which is essentially the economic and governmental aspects of the familiar left-right spectrum and ranges from 1 (most conservative) to -1 (most liberal). >>

Show threadMax Ganz II 🇺🇦Nov 29, 2022
@conradhackett I may be wrong, but I'm rather of the view the Rep. have gone off the rails, and become a far-right party, which is to say, have no problems subverting the democratic process, either indirectly by lies and deception, or directly, by electoral manipulation by any means, to obtain power; and once such a party is in power, you normally find you cannot then get rid of them, because elections are then manipulated to the extent necessary to ensure they remain in power (e.g. Hungary).
Show threadAna Ribeiro 💙Nov 30, 2022
@maxganz @conradhackett guess similar process going on in the U.K. :(
Show threadMax Ganz II 🇺🇦Nov 30, 2022
@anaribeiro @conradhackett I may wrong, but I've seen no sign of that, although I'm not a close watcher. What do you have in mind?
Show threadKim Spence-Jones #FBPENov 30, 2022
@maxganz @anaribeiro @conradhackett
“ The Tories are now the most rightwing governing party in the developed world”
https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2022/09/30/the-tories-are-now-the-most-rightwing-governing-party-in-the-developed-world/
The stock market is failing according to the CBI. So why don’t we just let it go?

I posted this on Twitter this morning: https://twitter.com/RichardJMurphy/status/1942861045426516103 My point is serious. The CBI is saying that the situation with regard to the UK stock exchange is getting desperate, because it is losing out to overseas markets and not attracting sufficient business. The question that needs to be asked is, why is that?...

Funding the Future
Show threadMax Ganz II 🇺🇦Nov 30, 2022
@KimSJ @anaribeiro @conradhackett Being right-wing on tax is not the same as subverting the democratic process, though. Also, I'm curious about that claim - I've seen a very sober budget come out, trying to balance the books, and quite a bit more tax is being collected. More tax is usually associated with left-wing policies, rather than right-wing?
Show threadKim Spence-Jones #FBPENov 30, 2022
@maxganz What about the corruption of the Covid VIP lane? The voter suppression through ID cards? The corrupt funding of the Brexit Leave campaign? The difficulty our PMs have in finding and keeping ethics advisors? The many ministers who have got away with breaking the ministerial code, including the PM himself, and the Home Secretary?
Show threadMax Ganz II 🇺🇦Nov 30, 2022
@KimSJ I don't keep close watch on the UK. I've heard about some of this - the ethics advisors seemed to be a problem specifically with Boris Johnson. I can't see Sunak doing the same. The Leave Campaign wasn't a Tory effort - indeed, Cameron wanted and expected the UK to vote to stay in.
Show threadKim Spence-Jones #FBPEDec 1, 2022
@maxganz Sunak has so far failed to find anyone prepared to be his ethics advisor (in the Johnson era, several who took on that role wished they hadn’t!). Of course Truss didn’t even try to appoint one.
Show threadMax Ganz II 🇺🇦Dec 1, 2022
@KimSJ Well, he's not in the role for very long yet. It might only be a matter of the time needed to find someone.
Show threadMeganNov 29, 2022
@conradhackett As a Canadian, I’m surprised the graph shows Democrats having moved even a little left. US politics always looks so right wing — from both parties — from the outside.
Show threadJoe ❌👑Nov 29, 2022
@PapyrusBrigade @conradhackett I would expect that on economic issues Dems have moved a bit *right* but this is outweighed by leftward movement on social issues like LGBT rights.
Show threadKathy E. Gill 🇺🇦Nov 30, 2022

@not2b @PapyrusBrigade @conradhackett

This chart doesn’t reflect social issues. See the Pew explanation.

Show threadMeganNov 30, 2022
@kegill @not2b Thanks for the prompt, Kathy. I’ve read the paper now. Interesting read.
Show threadMarco van Burgsteden 🍋Nov 29, 2022
@PapyrusBrigade @conradhackett from a European perspective, everything seems right-winged. It makes our fascists look like commies.
Show threadKathy E. Gill 🇺🇦Nov 30, 2022

@PapyrusBrigade @conradhackett

Because we are more conservative overall (especially since Reagan, 1981-1989), our left has been shackled.

Show threadJacob RemesNov 29, 2022
@conradhackett One can see this through qualitative study, too. The "far left" among elected Democrats are essentially New Deal liberals--but in the '30s the New Deal was flanked to the left by a strong radical movement.
Show threadKimberlyNov 29, 2022
@conradhackett Conservatives have not only moved to the right, they’ve moved 4 to 5 times more right than Democrats have moved left. But in right wing media, it’s all “Omg, hair on fire, the radical left!” when they are the true radicals.
Show threadDr. Jack Brown Nov 29, 2022

@conradhackett

Yes, but American Democrats are not "far left" by any standards compared to the 194 countries in the world — but American Republican Party is much further Right than most all countries.

Show threadJHadleyCNov 30, 2022
@DrJackBrown They are not left at all.
Show threadAdam GrantNov 30, 2022
@JHadley @DrJackBrown agreed. It's more like left of right.
Show threadJHadleyCNov 30, 2022
@nicegoingadam Right. Slightly left of center. We have progressives in our party. But overall we are a slightly left of center party. I call myself a liberal and a pragmatic progressive (Thank you, Hillary) I want what many progressives want but I am realistic enough to know what's possible now and live to fight another day. Comes from age, experience and living in the midwest, south, FL, TX and AZ.
Show threadPeteNov 29, 2022
@conradhackett The Democrats probably haven’t moved so much because so many ex-Republicans have now registered as Democrats. Also, they’re probably not left enough for the extreme left, who identify as socialists, anarchists, etc. The extreme right are now comfortable as Republicans, unfortunately.
Show threadNancy Williams PainterNov 29, 2022
@conradhackett socially? Economically there is very little daylight. That is why line graphs of wealth division or social goods are smooth up or down and not jagged
Show threadNadia/Надя/नाडिया/娜迪亚/ ناديةNov 29, 2022
@conradhackett How have the neoliberal neoconservative Democrats not moved to the right? The whole Third Way & DLC were dedicated to moving the party to the right & by every metric succeeded.
Show threadSFborn1940Nov 29, 2022
@conradhackett Didn't this happen in Germany during the rise of the Nazis?
Show threadFrank VerhoevenNov 30, 2022
@conradhackett You’re going to need a logarithmic scale soon. Because of the Republicans.
Show threadJozefNov 30, 2022
@conradhackett Very scary to see. I think it makes sense though, in times of crisis the right are more likely to take extreme viewpoints as resolutions to societal issues, as they feel more comfortable expressing what they really want to an audience of masses who are suffering and more likely to buy it.
Show threadJozefNov 30, 2022
@conradhackett I'm not a historian but I think that follows historical trends too right? Alt right wing leadership is usually preceded by significant economic turmoil.
Show threadKathy E. Gill 🇺🇦Nov 30, 2022

@GungJoe @conradhackett

This Pew chart isn’t reflecting social issues. She the report: economic and government.

Show threadNonnie IdaNov 30, 2022
@conradhackett I didn’t need research to tell me that the Republicans are nutbags.
Show threadCraig+4Nov 30, 2022

@conradhackett
The data clearly shows that the GOP has shifted MUCH more than the Dems.

Call it: GOP has radicalized.

Show threadMathias Lee 🏳️‍🌈Nov 30, 2022

@conradhackett Thx for sharing!

When we hear the phrase "we're a center right country" it's an attempt to recalibrate the middle/center.

I believe the right thinks if they go batshit crazy far right they can move that needle. But...the numbers aren't on their side as seen in our last election cycle. 🙌

Show threadGaryRLundbergNov 30, 2022

@conradhackett

GOP sure makes the bigger shift. You wonder: Is the Democrat move just a response. Seems likely.

Show threadVoronNov 30, 2022
@conradhackett now do specifically economic issues or foreign policy cuz really looking at voting records then actual dueling policy they are really close e.g. GOP wants to lower taxes on the rich Dems want to raise them but if you look it’s only a percentage point or two versus what happened decades ago
Show threadKeith DevlinNov 30, 2022
@conradhackett The rise of fascism. Graphical evidence that helps us understand how the Third Reich developed in a "civilized, cultured society". How come the #GOP does not get this? We all know the history from the 1930s and 40s, and how it ends
Show threadKim Spence-Jones #FBPENov 30, 2022

@conradhackett
My theory is that competent Government is invisible, so people start to take it for granted as the status quo, and get increasingly irritated by the minor things (not understanding how important they may be to the overall smooth running). So they start to be attracted by the seductive simple lies of the immoral far right which tell them they can avoid such irritations as paying tax or supporting others who need it (forgetting that might be themselves one day).

And here we are!

Show threadJHadleyCNov 30, 2022
@conradhackett Democrats have barely moved to more progressive positions.