U.S. partisan gap widens, bases shrink: poll

 WASHINGTON, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Five months ahead of the U.S. presidential election, U.S. partisan¹ bases have been shrinking and going more polarized, with more Americans identifying themselves as political independents in the past 25 years, according to a new poll released by Pew Research Center on Monday.

As Americans head to the presidential elections this fall, the values gap between Republicans and Democrats³ is now greater than gender⁴, age, race or class divides, said Pew Research center in the new survey. The average partisan gap has almost doubled since 1987 when Pew started tracking Americans' political values on 48 issues, increasing from 10 percent to 18 percent.

One of the most dramatic shift in partisan values occurred on general assessments⁵ of the government's effectiveness and proper scope in recent years. Republicans increasingly feel that regulation does more harm than good since 2007 while Democrats increasingly disagree. The share of Republicans saying the government is too involved in people's daily lives has grown in the same period, while the share decreased for Democrats' part.

The poll finds that the country's partisan polarization has surged in the presidencies⁶ of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, with increases recorded nearly across the board.

The Obama presidency⁷ has also witnessed the most extreme partisan evaluation⁸ of government in the past 25 years when Republicans feel more negatively toward the government and Democrats feel far more positively⁹.

The increasing divergence¹⁰ between Republicans and Democrats coincides with the shrinking of the partisan bases, as the poll show, with a record low of 56 percent of Americans think themselves as either Republicans (24 percent) or Democrats (32 percent).

Previous polls showed 62 percent and 64 percent of Americans identified themselves as a Republican or Democrat² in 2008 and 2004 respectively. Democratic affiliation¹¹ has fallen to 32 percent over the past four years, from a recent peak of 36 percent in 2008 following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Republican identification fell to 25 percent in 2008 and has not recovered since then.

Thirty-eight percent of Americans identify themselves as independents, the highest in the past 25 years. In fact, looking at data from Gallup going back to 1939, it is safe to say that there are more political independents in 2012 than at any point in the last 75 years, showing a long-term trend that both parties have lost support, said Pew Research.

While Republicans and Democrats are further moving apart over the past 25 years, the polarization also extends to independents, most of whom lean toward a political party.

1 partisan   

adj.党派性的；游击队的；n.游击队员；党徒

参考例句：

• In their anger they forget all the partisan quarrels.愤怒之中，他们忘掉一切党派之争。
• The numerous newly created partisan detachments began working slowly towards that region.许多新建的游击队都开始慢慢地向那里移动。

2 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

3 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

5 assessments   

n.评估( assessment的名词复数 )；评价；（应偿付金额的）估定；（为征税对财产所作的）估价

参考例句：

• He was shrewd in his personal assessments. 他总能对人作出精明的评价。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Surveys show about two-thirds use such assessments, while half employ personality tests. 调查表明，约有三分之二的公司采用了这种测评；而一半的公司则采用工作人员个人品质测试。 来自百科语句

6 presidencies   

n.总统的职位( presidency的名词复数 )；总统的任期

参考例句：

• The Dalai Lama previously visited the island during the presidencies of Chen Shui-bian and Lee Teng-hui. 曾经获得诺贝尔和平奖的达赖喇嘛，此前曾在李登辉和陈水扁主政期间访问台湾。 来自互联网

7 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

8 evaluation   

n.估价，评价；赋值

参考例句：

• I attempted an honest evaluation of my own life.我试图如实地评价我自己的一生。
• The new scheme is still under evaluation.新方案还在评估阶段。

9 positively   

adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实

参考例句：

• She was positively glowing with happiness.她满脸幸福。
• The weather was positively poisonous.这天气着实讨厌。

10 divergence   

n.分歧，岔开

参考例句：

• There is no sure cure for this transatlantic divergence.没有什么灵丹妙药可以消除大西洋两岸的分歧。
• In short,it was an age full of conflicts and divergence of values.总之，这一时期是矛盾与价值观分歧的时期。

11 affiliation   

n.联系，联合

参考例句：

• There is no affiliation between our organization and theirs,even though our names are similar.尽管两个组织的名称相似，但我们之间并没有关系。
• The kidnappers had no affiliation with any militant group.这些绑架者与任何军事组织都没有紧密联系。