The last taboo

Do you ever wonder why it takes so long to do something as simple as confirming a nominee for attorney general?

Alan Abramowitz, who teaches political science at Emory University, has co-authored a new study which finds that the cultural divide between Democrats and Republicans in both houses of congress is now wider than at any time in the past century.

“When you’re on opposing sides on every issue &#8212 issue after issue &#8212 there is no common ground,” Abramowitz recently told interviewer Robert Winston.

And most of this polarization is because Republicans skew more white and trust religion, while Democrats skew more non-white and tend to trust government, and they see each other as aliens &#8212 to the point that close to 90 percent of voters now vote straight party tickets. And those voters are motivated not by an intense love of their own party, but an intense hatred of the opposite party.

“These are not just people that we disagree with them on the issues, but we view them as immoral &#8212 a threat to the country,” Abramowitz said.

And Professor Abramowitz told Winston that this animosity goes deep. Very deep.

“In fact, marrying someone from a different religious faith or marring someone from another race is now viewed as more acceptable by many people than marrying someone from the opposing party,” Abramowitz said.

Which tells me that the only way the country survives is for today’s twenty-somethings to rebel against the gridlock of their parents’ generation by eloping with their political opposites. Interparty marriage won’t be easy. Bakers and florists may turn you away. But you will be on the right side of history.