Political scientists are spending more time correcting - or attempting to correct - the assumptions political journalists make about the political matters. Conventional wisdom tends to develop about certain matters and are repeated over and over even though there is little empirical evidence to support it - or even if its just flat wrong
A noted political scientist tries to keep journalists honest, and one wrote up a look at five things journalists get wrong . The Atlantic summarizes his argument.
I'll try not to repeat these mistakes:
1- The electorate is not polarizing, it is sorting
2 - Candidates change more than voters do.
3 - Independents aren't partisans.
4 - Division is easy to overstate.
5 - Campaign ads really, really, really don't make much difference.
Morris Fiorina has argued that too much has been made of the polarization in American politics. Not that it doesn't exist, but it is not the overwhelming problems that the media makes it seem. We have gone through similar episode in the past and survived them. He offers a counterpoint to the book 2305 students are reading this semester.
