“Partisan Polarization Surges in Bush, Obama Years” Pew Research Center

[jody]

http://www.people-press.org/2012/06/04/partisan-polarization-surges-in-bush-obama-years/

As Americans head to the polls this November, their values and basic beliefs are more polarized along partisan lines than at any point in the past 25 years. Unlike in 1987, when this series of surveys began, the values gap between Republicans and Democrats is now greater than gender, age, race or class divides.

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With regard to the broad spectrum of values, basic demographic divisions – along lines such as gender, race, ethnicity, religion and class – are no wider than they have ever been. Men and women, whites, blacks and Hispanics, the highly religious and the less religious, and those with more and less education differ in many respects. However, these differences have not grown in recent years, and for the most part pale in comparison to the overwhelming partisan divide we see today.

[BeyondGeography]

1. How's this: Republican self-destructive looniness has surged since 1980

Do we have a study that measures this?