From the Washington Post: A new way to visualize America’s surge in partisan hostility

A good example of what Washington warned against in his farewell address.

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We are at one of those moments where it’s worth stepping back and considering the state of things though the lens of recent history. Ten years ago, the defeat of Mitt Romney by Barack Obama prompted reflection within the Republican establishment about its appeal. Now, Romney regularly sides with Democrats in opposition to the right-wing president who succeeded Obama — including on that president’s effort to retain power despite losing his bid for reelection.

What seemed — often misleadingly — as a fairly standard partisan tension in 2012 has now become a focus of regular articles speculating about civil war or, at least, a rise in political violence. Americans from either political party view the other side with increasing hostility. A former defense secretary who served under Donald Trump recently said that “extreme partisanship” was the biggest threat the nation faces.

Newly published data from a regular national survey shows exactly how that divide has widened. At the time of each presidential election, the American National Election Studies (ANES), run by Stanford University and the University of Michigan, asks Americans about their political views. The research has been conducted for decades, with researchers asking the same or similar questions during each cycle. The result is a pool of data that offers unique insight into how Americans’ political views have changed in recent decades.