How many of us truly live in a bubble?
by digby
Emma Green at The Atlantic runs down an interesting new study by the magazine and PRRI about the political and cultural divide:
Most Americans do not live in a totalizing bubble. They regularly encounter people of different races, ideologies, and religions. For the most part, they view these interactions as positive, or at least neutral.
Yet according to a new study by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) and The Atlantic, a significant minority of Americans do not live this way. They seldom or never meet people of another race. They dislike interacting with people who don’t share their political beliefs. And when they imagine the life they want for their children, they prize sameness, not difference. Education and geography seemed to make a big difference in how people think about these issues, and in some cases, so did age.
One of the many questions the Trump era has raised is whether Americans actually want a pluralistic society, where people are free to be themselves and still live side by side with others who aren’t like them. U.S. political discourse is filled with nasty rhetoric that rejects the value of diversity outright. Yet, theoretically, pluralism is good for democracy: In a political era when the vast majority of Americans believe the country is divided over issues of race, politics, and religion, relationships across lines of difference could foster empathy and civility. These survey results suggest that Americans are deeply ambivalent about the role of diversity in their families, friendships, and civic communities. Some people, it seems, prefer to stay in their bubble.
In terms of both geography and culture, America is largely sorted by political identity. In a representative, random survey of slightly more than 1,000 people taken in December, PRRI and The Atlantic found that just under a quarter of Americans say they seldom or never interact with people who don’t share their partisan affiliation. Black and Hispanic people were more likely than whites to describe their lives this way, although education made a big difference among whites: 27 percent of non-college-educated whites said they seldom or never encounter people from a different political party, compared with just 6 percent of college-educated whites.
Even those Americans who regularly encounter political diversity don’t necessarily choose it, however. Democrats, independents, and Republicans seem to mingle most in spaces where people don’t have much of an option about being there. According to the survey, roughly three-quarters of Americans’ interactions with people from another political party happen at work. Other spheres of life are significantly more politically divided: Less than half of respondents said they encounter political differences among their friends. Only 39 percent said they see political diversity within their families, and vanishingly few people said they encounter ideological diversity at religious services or community meetings. Traditionally, researchers have seen these spaces as places where people can build strong relationships and practice the habits of democracy. The PRRI/Atlantic findings add to growing evidence that these institutions are becoming weaker—or, at the very least, more segregated by identity. “If you’re thinking from a participatory democracy model, you would hope to see these numbers much higher,” said Robert P. Jones, the CEO of PRRI.
Green’s piece is well worth reading for the overview.
I found this part of the PRRI release equally interesting:
Spotlight on the Great Lakes States
The 2018 Election
Views of President Trump
Like Americans as a whole, residents of states in the Great Lakes region have an unfavorable view of the president overall.[8] Less than four in ten (37%) Great Lakes residents have a favorable view of the president, while more than six in ten (60%) view the president unfavorably. Similarly, 36% of Americans overall have a favorable view of the president, and 59% have an unfavorable view.
However, there are some notable distinctions between Americans overall and residents of various Great Lakes states. In Ohio, for example, opinions about Trump are somewhat rosier than among the national population. Nearly half (47%) of Ohio residents have a favorable view of Trump, while 51% have an unfavorable view. By contrast, Illinois residents are less likely to have a positive perspective on the president: only 28% have a favorable view of Trump, while 68% have an unfavorable view. Other Great Lakes states track more closely with Trump’s overall favorability numbers.
They explore all the questions with specific focus on these Great lakes states and the upshot is that Illinois is more liberal than average and Ohio is more conservative with the rest of the states pretty much falling along the same lines as most of the country.
Surprise? Not really. It does seem to me that Ohio is likely a full-blown red state now and out of reach for Democrats. But other than that, these states aren’t particularly unique.
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