The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again

by Robert D. Putnam

Thus, as Americans have increasingly sorted themselves more consistently between the two political parties, and as social identities have aligned more completely with partisan loyalties, interparty prejudice and even anger have been heightened. Interpersonal partisan hostility has increased.81 American voters increasingly see supporters of the other party as extreme ideologically and flawed personally. Both Democrats and Republicans increasingly dislike, even loathe, their opponents. Out-party stereotyping in assessing the “intelligence” of Americans rose from 6 percent in 1960 to 48 percent in 2008; out-party bias in perceptions of “selfishness” rose from 21 percent to 47 percent. In slightly more than two decades (1994–2016) the rate of “extremely unfavorable” views of our party opponents rose steadily from less than 20 percent to about 56 percent.82