On 2011-02-25, at 1:08 PM, Doug Henwood wrote:
> ...like I said one party is insanely right wing and the other is just tepidly so. But the increased polarization in voting patterns is at odds with what a lot of people say on the left, which is all about a narrowing difference between the parties. That just doesn't fit with the historical record.
Doesn't it have mostly to do with the increasing polarization at the base of the two parties, especially since the civil rights struggles of the 60s? The Democrats are a predominantly urban party drawing support from blacks, hispanics, working women, gays, the liberal intelligensia, trade unionists, and public sector workers. The mainly white Republican base is located outside or on the periphery of the major cities, and has been traumatized by the demographic and cultural trends which have shaped US society in recent decades, accompanied by the perception that US economic and military power has declined abroad. They're deeply suspicious of and hostile to the liberal and non-white constituencies which constitute the DP base, and the latter have reciprocated. Bush and Obama were lightning rods for the visceral antagonism each base feels towards the other. The party leaders on both sides of the aisle are much closer socially and ideologically, but have to respond - within the limits prescribed by the capitalist system - to the conflicting pressures emanating from their respective bases more than is commonly acknowledged on the left.