Talk politics, and tolerance takes a beating

By MILES BENSON
Newhouse News Service

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Intolerance of political differences is growing, experts say. Republican and Democratic activists blame each other.

"The anger, in my opinion, is due to Bush and his policies and his inability to articulate them," said Bob Mulholland, a Democratic national committeeman from California. "The other team has a player we all hate, and we're going to take it out on that team."

Countered Republican Tom Korologos, a longtime lobbyist recently sworn in as U.S. ambassador to Belgium: "The Democrats have made the president the devil, and you can't pummel him, or anybody, for that length of time without repercussions in Toledo and Salt Lake and Bakersfield."

The level of intensity is reflected in the numbers of voters already identifying themselves as "strongly" for President Bush or Sen. John Kerry, the likely Democratic nominee, said Republican Ed Goeas and Democrat Celinda Lake. The two collaborate in producing the Battleground Poll for George Washington University.

"Normally, 'strong' voters run at 33 percent of a candidate's support, not the 40 percent we're seeing now," Lake said.

Goeas also noted the proportion of citizens who say they are "extremely likely" to vote: "It usually runs between 67 and 70 percent. The highest I ever saw it was 70 percent. This year we have 78 percent saying they are 'extremely likely' to vote."

"We've become two warring nations," independent pollster John Zogby agreed. "The same incivility we have been experiencing within Washington in the last decade has spread out and we are seeing it nationally now.

"What the vice president said was emblematic," Zogby continued, referring to Dick Cheney having told Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., to "(expletive) yourself" in a well-publicized exchange in late June on the Senate floor.

Bush supporter Stanley Mills, a Leesburg, Va., businessman, is troubled by the tone of debate — even within his family.

"I was talking to my brother-in-law just last week — he's for Kerry — and he got so mad I had to tell him that if we can't discuss politics without getting upset and angry, we'll just have to quit," Mills said. "I think it's very disturbing you can't discuss differences of opinion without it evolving into a shouting match."
 
Republican Bill McInturff of the polling firm Public Opinion Strategies uses an "intensity range" to show that attitudes are significantly stronger regarding President Bush than they were concerning Bill Clinton in 1996 or Bush's father in 1992.

When McInturff adds the percentage of Democrats who strongly disapprove of Bush (69 percent) to the percentage of Republicans who strongly approve of him (68 percent), the "intensity range" is 137 percent — almost double the 72 percent range for George H.W. Bush. The range for Clinton (in this case, Republican disapproval added to Democratic approval) was 92 percent.

"It's stunning. I have never in my life seen these kinds of numbers on the level of intensity on both sides," McInturff said. "We are seeing the largest gap in American history in approval and disapproval by party. The level at which people are locking in is without precedent."

Walking in Washington's Lafayette Park recently, Jean and Lee Bondurant, tourists from Seattle's suburbs, said they feel the tension among friends and neighbors. They blame the president.

"I don't like Bush," said Lee Bondurant, a political independent. "Because he ain't got no smarts. Just listen to the way he speaks. He's damaging our country's image in the world. I think he was put in office by his father."

For an opposing view, listen to Alabama state Republican Chairman Marty Connors:

"I think the average voter is beginning to sense that there is a cultural conflict going on in the country. It goes back to taking prayer out of school, and the federal judiciary getting increasingly proactive. ... I'm a 47-year-old guy with a 13-year-old daughter, I'm not some reactionary, but I never thought the day would come when the president of the United States would be forced to define what a marriage is. ...

"I think the left really dislikes George Bush, and I think on our side we like him. So the end result is, 'Hey, you're picking on my brother here — back off or I'll punch you in the nose.' It's real."