Ales Rarus

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1. From Radical Civility » The Red, the Blue, and the Irrelevant on 17 Feb 2006 at 12:34 am ¶ [...] Back in 1995 I assigned my students in History 152 (American Civilization Since 1877) a book by E.J. Dionne entitled Why Americans Hate Politics, essentially an informal history of U.S. political culture since the 1950s. I chose it because it was accessibly written and because it explained why most of my undergraduates hated politics. But they hated politics so much they even hated Dionne's book! The basic reason, Dionne maintained in a thesis that has now become familiar, is that political leaders have come to specialize in the politics of division, staking out extreme positions that do not correspond with the actual views of most Americans. That remains the case, according to the results of a Gallup poll I encountered in Ales Rarus. (Hat tip to Fr. Jim Tucker via Funky Dung): The Gallup Poll’s annual survey on government found that 27% of Americans are conservative; 24% are liberal, up sharply because the poll was taken after Katrina, which boosted support for the proposition that ‘government should do more to solve our country’s problems.’ Gallup also found — this year as in others — that 20% are neither liberal nor conservative but libertarian, opposing the use of government either to ‘promote traditional values’ or to ‘do too many things that should be left to individuals and businesses.’ Another 20% are ‘populist’ (supporting government action in both areas), with 10% undefined. [...]

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