Polarization increases with economic decline, becoming cripplingly contagious

[Warpy]

(If you wanted to know just where those 70 million stupid people came from)

The rise of populist movements is changing political systems around the world. As support for these "anti-elite" movements intensifies, many are scrambling to understand whether economic decline and intensifying inter-group conflict are playing a role.

A model developed by a team of researchers—including Nolan McCarty of Princeton University—shows how group polarization, rising inequality, and economic decline may be strongly connected.

The model develops a theory that group polarization tends to soar in times of economic duress and rising inequality. Yet, even after financial conditions improve, these divisions may remain deeply rooted.
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"Rather than continue the unproductive debate over whether 'economic anxiety' or group conflict is most responsible for our deeply divided politics, scholars should spend more effort considering the debilitating feedback between economics and identity," said McCarty.

https://phys.org/news/2020-12-polarization-economic-decline-cripplingly-contagious.html

Medium sized article, 3 videos, and a link to the original paper.

[Midnight Writer]

1. In other words, the more the middle class struggles, the better it is for Republicans.

A downward spiral.

A worker gets screwed by the economy, becomes angry and disillusioned, and so votes for the Party catering to his anger. In turn, the Party screws the worker even more, making him even angrier, who then supports the Party even more fanatically.

[Warpy]

2. It's a little more complicated than that

since he looks for other people just like him, one of those instinctive things people under stress do since there is usually strength in numbers. This leads to the type of tribalism and identity politics among white males that we're seeing.

The Republicans and the corporate propaganda machines have been very good at capturing that anger and twisting it into their own form of demagoguery.

And that is where those 70 million voters came from.