Forgive me for asking such a stupid question. I must be having a serious brain freeze, because I feel like the answer should be obvious, especially for someone who has followed politics closely for so long. I'm sure the political scientists know the answer. Here's the chart that got me wondering about this:
(Source note: The chart is from the CQ Voting and Elections Collection, and is based on Gallup Poll data.)
Remember, convergence implies increasing polarization, so up is down in this chart. Curiously, the highest spreads (and thus the least polarization) occurred in 1964—the year Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Vietnam probably explains most of the exodus from the Democratic party from 1964 to 1974.
But the long-term trend is clearly toward partisan parity. Why does our political system (or representative democracy in general) trend toward partisan parity? Is it self-reinforcing? Is partisan parity inevitable? I'm sure plenty of people would instinctively answer, "it's because Republicans have pursued a strategy of political polarization." But that's an extremely flimsy explanation for the long-term trend, and relies too much on evil intentions. It has to be something about our political system. I'm just blanking out on what, exactly.
Please help me. Seriously, I feel like the answer is on the tip of my tongue and I just can't spit it out.
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