This story was originally published by Reasons to be Cheerful
3 min read
Pundits are describing last night as a romp for Democrats, a rebuke of Republicans, a blue tsunami, a rout in the red states. But underneath these headlines is a quieter, parallel story about voters choosing to abandon tribal allegiance and make decisions for themselves.
For months, we’ve been hearing about the possibility of a blue wave — and then, in the same breath, the caveat: Is a wave even possible in today’s hyper-polarized America? And yet, in Texas, Florida, Kansas and beyond, the electorate refused to let party loyalty make their choice for them. Young, Latino and red-state voters moved, sometimes dramatically, in just two years. The composition of the two sides turned out to be less fixed than we imagined, with a meaningful number of voters willing to cast ballots across party lines when a candidate, issue or circumstance spoke to them.
Part of the story was turnout, said New York Times Chief Political Analyst Nate Cohn on The Daily. But, he added, “Many people who are registered as Republicans and voted for Donald Trump voted for the Democratic candidate.”
This feels like a fitting conclusion to The Depolarization Project, our special series about how political polarization works and what we can do about it. The premise of that series was that depolarization isn’t about meeting in the middle. It’s about choosing to remain open and curious, rather than blindly clinging to arbitrary affiliations. In the end, many voters showed that their party label doesn’t have the final say.
Wednesdays are normally “What We’re Reading” day here at Reasons to be Cheerful, so in that spirit, here’s a post-Election Day list of stories from our own depolarization series and from elsewhere around the web.
We Hate to Break It to You, But Maybe We’re Not That Polarized – the New York Times
A Wall Meant to Divide Is Uniting Left and Right in Texas – Reasons to be Cheerful
Voters Vastly Underestimate the Open-Mindedness of Their Political Rivals – PsyPost
The Door-to-Door Technique That Actually Changes Minds — Reasons to be Cheerful
The post The Election That Transcended Tribalism appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful.
