Those social scientists who conducted the poll I linked earlier sure must feel silly now that you've said what they did is beyond human achievement. Here is the poll again that formed the statistical basis for the conclusions I said I had seen reported.
37% of Democrats wouldn't befriend someone who voted for the other party.
www.axios.com
Well, there are some pretty fundamental differences seemingly built in to begin with. We discussed this, on this very forum, years ago when it was becoming clearer that extreme polarization was going to be a huge problem. I don’t think we should ignore things like this, since, I assume, sooner or later, we are going to have to find a way to live together in the same nation. Right now, that seems very unlikely. The Canadian scholar who is warning his countrymen that the US might be a right wing dictatorship before long is thinking along the same lines I am.
How research in political psychology explains the fierce clashes between Republican and Democrats in our polarized system.
www.theatlantic.com
I’ll repost this, because I think both sides likely exaggerate how much the extremes of both parties actually represent the dominant points of view reflected by those who self identify with either party:
New research shows that Americans on both sides of the political spectrum overestimate how radical the other side is.
www.theatlantic.com
On the other hand, while I see much hatred directed at me on Facebook, by conservative friends who I refuse to unfriend, I would say students who feel the way your poll indicates they do, do so because they are perceptive, and recognize, as I do, that the Republican Party is attempting, and will continue to attempt, to create a tyranny of the minority in the United States. Since the Republican Party, at least the majority of its supporters, support an Orwellian-style Big Lie that is behind the Republican state level efforts to control the machinery of elections, no doubt in order to make 2024 a more successful effort to overturn the results of a free and fair election, should they lose the presidential election, then no surprise to me if a perceptive and intelligent college student would want to steer clear of any Republican classmate. The culture wars as well would make compromise very difficult. The low level civil war we are currently immersed in largely revolves around cultural issues at this stage. At any rate, when I see Republicans engaged by an allegiance to an alternative reality that bears no resemblance to actual reality, I’d steer clear as well.
I imagine part of me views your survey results as a crock, though. I imagine it makes you feel good to try and “prove” that liberals and Democrats are somehow more hateful people, more emotionally unhinged by our partisan divide. Bull****. How’s that for a well thought out response to your poll? Bull****. Lol, well, actually, it’s not that hard to fathom. It’s the MAGA Republicans who are going over the deep end after all. Who wants to date a conspiracy believing individual divorced from consensus reality?