Family dinners turning hostile, if they happen at all. Angry exchanges pick up on social media over posts extolling one candidate or criticizing another. Fans fight over artists and celebrities over social media if they make a move that crosses some political line.
The negative and at times nasty rhetoric, from politicians and their supporters, is just coming under more scrutiny following a second apparent assassination attempt Sunday on Trump. The former president and other Republicans have blamed Democratic rhetoric for the attacks on Trump. Plenty of Democrats say Trump’s own rhetoric has led to a more heated environment, and note the recent threats to schools and government buildings in Springfield, Ohio.
Republicans and Democrats blame each other for creating an increasingly toxic environment where friendships between Democrats and Republicans, whether in Congress or just in normal life, seems difficult.
“It’s not just, ‘Oh, you and I are from a different party or we hold different beliefs.’ But it’s like, ‘You are an immoral person if you believe what that party believes and not what I believe,’” said Amie Gordon, a University of Michigan assistant professor of psychology.
Gordon’s research article “I Love You but I Hate Your Politics” was published earlier this year in the American Psychological Association’s peer-reviewed journal.
“Our political identity is becoming much more central to who people are and surpassing some other aspects of who they are — race, and gender and other things,” Gordon said.
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