James L. T.
Sep 3, 2018 · 2 min read

In rereading my piece i should have indicated that the .gif represents the distance between parties on economic issues. You make a very good point on the binary emphasis, one that I generally agree with. I retrieved all data from Voteview, and per their analyses voting tends to be very much emphasized on economic issues over social. While there has certainly been a dramatic shift in social viewpoints, the economic split is where we see fewer moderates. In the next few days I will put together more images for both houses, congress as a whole, and tables for both dimensions (this is a tedious process). In the meantime, I’ve “compassed” out the 80th and 115th congressional sessions (both chambers combined):

During the 80th Congress, there was a lot more overlap between the parties as it related to economic issues, in part because the Great Depression and World War II necessitated it. Albeit, an even greater reason is because compromise was still valued. What’s really interesting though is that you can see that Democrats were very economically conservative (shifting closer to 1), and Republicans were very economically liberal (shifting closer to -1).

Basically, Democrats have become economically and socially more liberal, whereas Republicans have become economically and socially more conservative. That divide that we see is driven by economic differences. To emphasize this, I’ve made two more histograms:

Effectively, since the 80th Congress, we’ve seen a significant shift in social beliefs / attitudes being elected. That shift has moved so that it is normally distributed whereas before it was skewed. We also see fewer socially extreme candidates in roaming the halls of Congress. Economic conservatism, however, didn’t leave, it got more conservative, and along with that now faces a an entirely separate group of economically liberal Democrats.

I hope that this helps to clarify why my original piece was binary in its focus. I appreciate your feedback, and as soon as I have more time I will write a follow up piece to reflect the larger complexities. Thanks!

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Mental health counselor by day, political blogger by night. #cat person, #liberal. Twitter: @AntiphonSophist

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