American Political Parties: The Polarization Express

From Post-ABC poll conducted Feb. 15-18:

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Party and policy positions

Trends in ideology

An alternative way of classifying ideology (See Schier, p. 28):

Image result for liberal conservative populist libertarian

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Partisan divides

Aversive Partisanship has grown since 1964 (see Schier, pp. 34-36):

Frustration, fear and anger among partisans

Many Republicans, Democrats view the other party as a 'threat to the nation's well-being'

Even marriage...

Some Would be Unhappy if Family Member Married ‘Outside’ of Party

The Russians know.

From the indictment:

Defendant ORGANIZATION [the Internet Research Agency, aka the Russian troll factory] had a strategic goal to sow discord in the U.S. political system, including the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Defendants posted derogatory information about a number of candidates, and by early to mid-2016, Defendants'' operations included supporting the presidential campaign of the -candidate Donald J. Trump ("Trump Campaign") and disparaging Hillary Clinton. Defendants made various expenditures to carry out those activities, including buying political advertisements on social media in the names of U.S. persons and grassroots entities and U.S. persons, and without revealing their Russian identities and ORGANIZATION affiliation, solicited and compensated real U.S. persons to promote or disparage candidates. Some Defendants, posing as U.S persons and without revealing their Russian association, communicated with unwitting individuals associated with the Trump Campaign and with other political activists to seek to coordinate political activities.

Michael Isikoff reports:

The Russians who worked for a notorious St. Petersburg “troll factory” that was part of Vladimir Putin’s campaign to influence the 2016 presidential election were required to watch the “House of Cards” television series to help them craft messages to “set up the Americans against their own government,” according to an interview broadcast Sunday (in Russian) with a former member of the troll factory’s elite English language department.

...

But more broadly, the instructions given to employees of the English language department were to stoke discontent about the U.S. government and the Obama administration in particular. “We had a goal to set up the Americans against their own government,” he says. “To cause unrest, cause discontent [and] lower [President] Obama’s rating.”

For example, @TEN_GOP

CBS REPORT ON THE RUSSIAN TROLL FACTORY

The clustering of America;