Can we ever “tolerate” each other?

Republicans and Democrats are more divided along ideological lines — and partisan antipathy is deeper and more extensive — than at any point in the last two decades. A new survey of 10,000 adults nationwide finds that these divisions are greatest among those who are the most engaged and active in the political process.

The overall share of Americans who express consistently conservative or consistently liberal opinions doubled betweem 2004 and 2014 from 10% to 21%. And ideological thinking is now much more closely aligned with partisanship than in the past. As a result, ideological overlap between the two parties has diminished: Today, 92% of Republicans are to the right of the median Democrat, and 94% of Democrats are to the left of the median Republican.

Increasing tolerance for each other’s views is the only way we overcome this schism.

“You have to tell the truth the way you see it. And yet you have to be tolerant of the fact that neither you nor the man you are arguing with is going to get it right”. — Jacob Bronowski, “The Principle of Tolerance”

Sadly, as a nation, I’m afraid we’ve moved beyond any form of Tolerance.