A Dangerous Case Of Mistaken Political Identity
By: Kirk Weinert
Tags: 2016 Election, Fake News, Stereotypes, Democrats, Republicans

My father is a dangerous psychological illusion.

And, if you’re a queer, agnostic, African-American union member, so are you.

And it’s going to be darned hard to make progress in this country if we don’t dispel such illusions fast.

Take my father’s case. Democrats look at him — a white, over-65, Protestant, veteran, straight, German-Scots-Irish, financially well-off male — and think “he’s a die-hard Republican.”

And they are absolutely correct. During his 67 years of voting, he may have never cast a ballot for a Democrat for any office higher than register of wills.

The problem is that the average Democrat thinks that many, if not most, Republicans are just like him. And that couldn’t be further from the truth.

A survey published recently in a Journal of Politics article — amusingly called “The Parties In Our Heads” — found that, on average, Democrats believe that:

* 44% of Republicans earn $250,000 or more per year. The real figure is 2%.

* 44% of Republicans are 65+ years old. The real figure is 21%.

* 44% of Republicans are evangelical Christians. The real figure is 34%.

Before you criticize Democrats for being blind to reality, Republicans are more out of touch. If you’re a gay, black, irreligious union member, you’ll be surprised to know that Republicans think you dominate the Democratic Party. They believe that:

* 38% of Democrats are gay, lesbian or bisexual. The real figure is 6%.

* 44% of Democrats are union members. The real figure is 10%.

* 36% of Democrats are atheists or agnostic. The real figure is 9%.

* 46% of Democrats are black. The real figure is 24%.

Truth be told, even party members accept some of the erroneous stereotypes about their fellow partisans. For example, Democrats think that 27% of their party are union members, while 33% of Republicans think their brethren are pulling in mega-big bucks.

You might be surprised to know that, if you’re into politics enough to be reading this, odds are you’re more mistaken than most. The study found that, in most cases, “those who report following the news most closely also hold the most prototype-biased beliefs about party composition.” In other words, the more you’re into politics, the more you’re likely to buy into inaccurate stereotypes about your partisan opponents.

Why does this matter?

For one, it leads to people thinking that the “other party” is ideologically more distant than it really is.

For example, when Democrats think that nearly half of Republicans are making $250,000+ per year, it’s natural for them to conclude that the GOP cares disproportionately about the rich. (The actual laws the Republican-controlled federal government has passed in the past 18 months have not exactly undercut that hypothesis.)

Or, when Republicans think that more than a third of Democrats are LGBTQ or atheist/agnostic (or, god forbid, both), it’s natural for them to assume the Ds are obsessed with identity politics inimical to their own beliefs.

That makes it more difficult to build transpartisan coalitions to tackle problems shared by all. It’s tough to trust someone from the other party on issues such as the environment or consumer protection when you think they’re probably trying to use you to advance some entirely different, abhorrent (to you) agenda.

That too easily leads to a vicious downward cycle of polarization and empowerment of demagogues willing to lean into stereotypes about the “other.”

To put it mildly, this is not an easy problem to solve. Many humans seem hard-wired to fall for the logical fallacy that if all As are Bs, then all Bs must be As.

And in an era of 24–7 information assaults, it’s hard to take the time to avoid judging the proverbial book by the cover that all your peers are telling you they’ve seen.

So, yes, my father is a Republican. But no one should anyone automatically assume that he agrees with every word of the party line (he certainly doesn’t), nor should they assume that every, even many, Republicans look or think like my father.

Only by avoiding this mental short-cut can we avoid the shattering consequences foreseen by the first Republican president, when, three years before the start of the Civil War, he prophesied that “a house divided against itself, cannot stand.”