I mean, that's been obvious for a long time but let's not pretend the Right isn't growing more extreme in response.
10+ years ago you couldn't even talk about Repealing the 19th, now its a popular talking point in some circles and you can joke about it pretty openly with most people on the Right (if women aren't in the room). I talk about it with the fucking normies at my job because of how casual and popular the idea is becoming.
Same with how that long ago most people on the Right still believed you could have blacks and gays around and be fine, no real upset unless it was really over the top or badly done. Now if a black character exists in a game, people might get pissed about it.
On and on, on almost every issue the Right wing general belief is growing further Right too.
This isn't to say this growing extremity is wrong in the slightest, I'd argue its the way it should have always been on a lot of things and a lot of it is in direct response to the Left doing it first. But we are currently in a point of such polarization that we cannot ever hope for peace because a compromise point would be so far Left/Right of each side's belief it would be madness.
The points you bring up are why I have a hard time believing that the "Republican political elites and influencers" are further to the right than right wing voters as shown in the upper right graphs. We are dragging them to the right, not the other way around.
I agree, the Repub elite & influencers are big on the status quo. Like the left's were until recently. They won't budge very far in either direction on their own, they need a swift kick to get them moving. Hopefully a few kicks to the right will have a lasting effect.
I mean, that's been obvious for a long time but let's not pretend the Right isn't growing more extreme in response.
10+ years ago you couldn't even talk about Repealing the 19th, now its a popular talking point in some circles and you can joke about it pretty openly with most people on the Right (if women aren't in the room). I talk about it with the fucking normies at my job because of how casual and popular the idea is becoming.
Same with how that long ago most people on the Right still believed you could have blacks and gays around and be fine, no real upset unless it was really over the top or badly done. Now if a black character exists in a game, people might get pissed about it.
On and on, on almost every issue the Right wing general belief is growing further Right too.
This isn't to say this growing extremity is wrong in the slightest, I'd argue its the way it should have always been on a lot of things and a lot of it is in direct response to the Left doing it first. But we are currently in a point of such polarization that we cannot ever hope for peace because a compromise point would be so far Left/Right of each side's belief it would be madness.
The points you bring up are why I have a hard time believing that the "Republican political elites and influencers" are further to the right than right wing voters as shown in the upper right graphs. We are dragging them to the right, not the other way around.
I agree, the Repub elite & influencers are big on the status quo. Like the left's were until recently. They won't budge very far in either direction on their own, they need a swift kick to get them moving. Hopefully a few kicks to the right will have a lasting effect.