A puzzle in my brain for a long time has been, how was Abraham Lincoln in the Republican Party? He led the North against the South in the Civil War and proclaimed emancipation as a . . . Republican? How and when did the two American political parties flip?
Another puzzle in my brain for a long time has been, why is it so hard to have an open, calm conversation about politics with someone who disagrees with you? We can talk about strong preferences in all sorts of areas without getting wild with rage or frustration. What’s different about certain hot-button issues?
I was excited to discover the answers to these questions—along with questions I didn’t even know I had—in Ezra Klein’s book Why We’re Polarized. The book came out in January 2020, so it’s a few years old. Klein tacked on an afterword to incorporate the pandemic and the Capitol insurrection of January 6, 2021. But Why We’re Polarized is mostly about the lead-up to Trump’s election and the first years of his presidency.
While getting old for a political book, Why We’re Polarized is very much worth reading this year. I have never encountered such a clear analysis of political history and psychology. Lately, I’ve been trying to understand as much as I can about the upcoming presidential election. This book has skyrocketed my comprehension.
Answer to Puzzle #1: How and When Did the Parties Flip?
The main cause of the flip was the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Civil Rights Act declared segregation illegal in public places. It also prohibited employment discrimination on the basis of race or color, as well as religion, sex, or national origin.
John F. Kennedy at first tried to walk a fine line between supporting Martin Luther King Jr. and retaining the support of Southern congressmembers. Ultimately, he sided with King and his growing movement. JFK proposed the civil rights bill. After his assassination in 1963, his VP, now President Lyndon B. Johnson, signed it into law, in 1964. Southern congressmembers opposed the bill, but it passed with support from both political parties. This was possible because the parties were not as strictly tied to certain issues as they are today.
Kennedy and Johnson both happened to be members of the Democratic Party. In opposition to their support of civil rights, Barry Goldwater, a Republican, ran against LBJ that same year, for 1964 was a presidential election year. Goldwater had voted against the Civil Rights Act, and the many Southerners who were also against the Civil Rights Act rallied around him. LBJ won the election. Klein explains:
“The Democratic Party’s embrace of civil rights, and the Republican Party’s decision to unite behind a standard-bearer who opposed the bill, cleared the way for southern conservatives to join the Republican Party. And that set the stage for all that followed.”
Answer to Puzzle #2: Why Is Political Talk So Heated and Divisive?
Klein writes about a scientific experiment that tested how well participants were able to solve math problems. But something odd happened when the math problems related to hot-button political issues AND the participants were strong partisans of either the Democratic or Republican party. Klein writes:
“It’s an insane finding: being better at math made partisans less likely to solve the problem correctly when solving the problem correctly meant betraying their political instincts. People weren’t reasoning to get the right answer; they were reasoning to get the answer that they wanted to be right.”
That is indeed insane. Being a strong political partisan can actually diminish your ability to do math. But why is this true?
“The most important psychological imperative most of us have in a given day is protecting our idea of who we are and our relationships with the people we trust and love.”
In other words, when the human brain has to choose between rationality and the safety of personal relationships, it will choose the latter every time.
Klein points out that “identity politics” is not a one-sided phenomenon. It’s all of us. Humans are a social species. Those of us who pay attention to politics tend to take on our political beliefs as part of our identity. Our political beliefs tend to inform whom we hang out with and whom we identify with. It’s personal.
That’s why political discussions get so heated. It’s not just about taste. It’s about who each of us is, as a person.
That’s why it’s so hard to change someone’s mind about politics. The task is almost impossible because you don’t just need to change their mind; you need to change their personal and social identity.
Have you been listening to the podcast episodes that The Ezra Klein Show has been putting out since the presidential debate?
(Five-million stars for these podcast episodes! Seriously vital information in there for voters. I recently sent notes to President Biden and Vice President Harris. You can contact the White House using this simple online form.)
A Few Reminders for Blog Readers
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I’ll definitely pick up that book. It’ll fit into a side project I’m working on, to publish on Substack.
Another reference, Solidarity, Leah Hunt-Hendrix & Astra Taylor. Here’s a reference I’m using in part of my project
“Political operative, Kevin Phillips argued in 1969, by using issues of identity and grievance to pit populations against one another, ”
Phillips was a highly ranked advisor for Nixon. It’s quite scary how experts will use innate human characteristics against us, to divide and conquer just to gain power.
OT: have you heard of this local publisher? https://www.boldstorypress.com/
Def let me know about your Substack when you get it going… I will be a subscriber. 🙂 Yes, I know the publisher. I met the CEO at a recent conference. She gave a good presentation.