Divided We Stand? What Americans Really Think About Politics

Let's Find Common Ground

USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future

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5 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 27 April 2023

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s often said that America is as politically divided as it has ever been. In this week’s show we dive into the data from two different groups that study American attitudes. What they discovered challenges some of our assumptions about the current state of US politics, and offers us a sense of context missing from noisy ‘us versus them’ type arguments. John Geer of Vanderbilt University discusses the latest findings from Vanderbilt’s Unity Index, which tracks Americans’ trust in institutions and democracy. Kate Carney, chief of staff at More in Common in Washington DC, talks about the group’s ‘Speaking to the Exhausted Majority’ report. Both reports are examples of deep research into the state of American public opinion and where common ground may lie. We discuss the extent to which US democracy is under threat, who really makes up the ‘exhausted majority’ of American voters, and what liberals and conservatives get wrong about the other side. Please tell us what you think! Share your feedback in this short survey. For every survey completed we’ll plant 5 trees. Common Ground Podcast Feedback Survey (qualtrics.com)

Transcript

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0:00.0	This time we look at two recent reports about what people really think about the state of
0:05.7	American democracy and our part in it. It turns out most of us are thoroughly fed up.
0:13.0	So if you're part of this exhaustive majority who may not see their views represented in what we
0:17.7	call the wings, kind of the more polarizing opposite ends of the political spectrum, and it's a pretty
0:22.9	toxic fight in there, you don't have a lot of incentive to want to jump into that. That's a pretty
0:27.6	exhausting space to be in.
0:34.4	This is Let's Find Common Ground. I'm Richard Davies. And I'm Ashley Melntite.
0:40.0	We're about to dive into some data that will confirm a few of our suspicions about the state of
0:44.8	our democracy and challenge others, and we're doing this through the insights of two guests.
0:50.4	John Geer is professor of political science at Vanderbilt University and manager of the Vanderbilt
0:56.7	project on unity and democracy. Kate Karney is chief of staff at Morin Common, which works to
1:04.0	address the underlying causes of polarization and aims to build a more united society.
1:10.9	John Geer and Kate Karney, thanks so much for joining us on Let's Find Common Ground.
1:14.5	Happy to be here.
1:15.9	Yeah, great to be here. Thank you.
1:17.6	So John, let's start with you. Both of your organizations have been sharing some valuable insights
1:23.3	about the state of public opinion, and it's often said in the media and elsewhere that we're
1:30.8	really divided. In fact, more so now than at any time in living memory. Based on what you know,
1:36.8	it is that true. If the constraint is within living memory, the answer is yes.
1:43.2	You know, we can see poll after poll showing huge amounts of polarization. The parties have
1:49.2	become to use a recent political scientist term calcified in their partisanship. We're very much
1:57.7	divided on key cultural issues. That division has grown over the last 30 to 40 years. I mean,
	...

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