In nearly 25 years, the partisan divide between Democrats and Republicans has never been so intense as it is today.
According to a new Pew Research Center study released Wednesday, majorities of both parties have “very unfavorable views” of the opposing party, for the first time since 1992.
In the study, 58 percent of Republicans have an unfavorable impression of the Democratic Party, which is up from 46 percent in 2014 and 32 percent in 2008.
Highly negative views of the GOP by Democrats have also increased over the same time — from 37 percent in 2008 to 43 percent in 2014 and 55 percent in 2016.
People are also afraid of those in the other party. Nearly 50 percent of Republicans say they are afraid of the Democratic Party, 57 percent say they are frustrated, and 46 percent say they are angry.
More than half of Democrats, 55 percent, say they are afraid of the Republican Party, while 58 percent say they are frustrated and 47 percent are angry.
Forty-four percent of both Democrats and Republicans say they “almost never” agree with the other party’s policy stances. However, just 16 percent of Republicans and 20 percent of Democrats say they “almost always” agree with their party’s positions.
The two parties do agree on at least one thing: The other party’s members are closed-minded. Seventy percent of Democrats say Republicans are more closed-minded than other Americans, compared to 52 percent of those in the Republican Party who feel that way about Democrats.
The online and mail study of 4,385 adults was conducted from March 2-28 and April 5-May 2 on Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel and carries margin of error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points. Other results came from telephone interviews conducted April 12-19, surveying 2,008 adults with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.
All studies were conducted before Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump became their parties’ presumptive presidential nominees.
