The polarization myth
By Lou Dobbs
CNN
(CNN) -- President Bush and Sen. Kerry have less than two weeks to try to sway the remaining undecided voters before the November presidential election. It's hard to imagine there are still undecided voters after months of nonstop campaigning and three so-called debates, especially when the pundits claim the American public is more polarized than at any point in recent history.
Much has been made of the perceived political split in America, dividing the United States into red ones and blue ones. But if one looks at the public sentiment on many important issues affecting the standard of living and quality of life of this country, our nation is not more polarized than ever before. What we really have is deep division and polarization among our political and business elites and in the mainstream media. There actually is broad consensus on many of these specific issues, but the public doesn't hear about consensus because it isn't compelling news.
Take, for example, the issue of illegal immigration. There is plenty of debate in the media and in Washington concerning amnesty and border restriction. But in a USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll taken shortly after President Bush announced plans for a guest worker program for millions of illegal aliens, nearly three-fourths of Americans said government should not make it easier for illegal immigrants to become citizens. Roughly the same percentage in a Pew Research Center poll said that we should restrict and control people coming into the country more than we do now. Broken down along party lines, 85 percent of Republicans and 76 percent of Democrats and independents agreed with that statement.
The public's views on the overall economy are actually fairly balanced, but there are certain economic issues on which a majority of Americans agree. A Zogby International poll for the Foreign Policy Association found that 71 percent of Americans believed outsourcing American jobs to cheap foreign labor markets was hurting the economy, while 62 percent of workers believe the federal government should penalize companies that export those jobs. According to an American Banker/Gallup Consumer survey, nearly four-fifths of respondents had an unfavorable opinion of outsourcing.
More than 60 percent of Americans in both traditionally Republican and Democratic states believe corporations have too much power. Only 4 percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of the North American Free Trade Agreement. And almost 80 percent of Americans think we should provide universal health care even if it means raising taxes.
Then why do we continue to hear about an increasingly polarized America?
"Political elites are really divided," says Morris Fiorina, professor of political science at Stanford University and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. "The upper stratum of the political class in the United States -- the candidates, the activists, the interest group leaders -- they are in fact more divided than they have been in quite a while. And these are the people everybody sees in the media."
Perhaps that's why only 44 percent of Americans expressed confidence in the media's ability to report stories accurately and fairly. That's the lowest level of confidence in the media since Gallup first asked the question in 1972. Business leaders received an even lower grade, with three-fourths of Americans saying they trust our nation's executives only some of the time or hardly ever. Surprisingly, more than 60 percent expressed a fair amount or a great deal of trust and confidence in our elected officials.
Then there are issues that seem contentious, but a majority of Americans admit they're not informed enough to hold a firm opinion. Educating our children is one of the most important problems we're currently facing, and activists often debate the subjects of school vouchers and the No Child Left Behind program. Yet two recent Gallup surveys show that 68 percent of Americans know very little or nothing about No Child Left Behind, and that six in 10 Americans said they don't know enough about vouchers to say whether they support or oppose the program.
The war in Iraq may be the one issue that fairly represents a divided America. According to the most recent CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, the percentage of Americans who think it was wrong to go to war is split evenly with the percentage that believes it was the right decision. But that doesn't indicate all foreign policy decisions are polarized: Nearly three-quarters of the public favors U.S. participation in both the International Criminal Court and the Kyoto treaty on global warming.
Fiorina says he thinks we're basically a centrist electorate that perceives itself as lying between two more extreme parties. And these extreme parties may speak the loudest, but they aren't accurately representing everyone's views.
"You tend to find that these are self-appointed, sanctimonious people who purport to speak for large constituencies, and in almost all cases they are more extreme than the constituency they purport to speak for," he says.
Instead of focusing on the differences of opinion that divide us and amplifying that diversity to score political points or higher ratings, we should instead dwell on the similarities that unite us as a nation. We're not as far apart on the issues as some would have us believe.
