Why We Hate Them, Why They Hate Us

Good article from Dreher at TAC.

LINK

It might not surprise you that some Americans think the other side (politically) is evil, and would like to see them die. It might surprise you, though, how many people believe that — and that more of them are Democrats. In his NYT column today, Tom Edsall looks at recent academic research that finds just over 42 percent of the people in each party view those in the other party as “evil.” But wait, there’s more:

Kalmoe and Mason, taking the exploration of partisan animosity a step farther, found that nearly one out of five Republicans and Democrats agree with the statement that their political adversaries “lack the traits to be considered fully human — they behave like animals.”

Their line of questioning did not stop there.

How about: “Do you ever think: ‘we’d be better off as a country if large numbers of the opposing party in the public today just died’?”

Some 20 percent of Democrats (that translates to 12.6 million voters) and 16 percent of Republicans (or 7.9 million voters) do think on occasion that the country would be better off if large numbers of the opposition died.

We’re not finished: “What if the opposing party wins the 2020 presidential election. How much do you feel violence would be justified then?” 18.3 percent of Democrats and 13.8 percent of Republicans said violence would be justified on a scale ranging from “a little” to “a lot.”