Few people would argue with Pew Research Center’s finding “political polarization is more intense now than at any point in modern history” (Oct. 27, 2020). Resolving the strife starts with truly knowing your political beliefs, understanding other political values, listening (vs. preaching) to others, expanding (vs. restricting) political news sources, compromising (vs. convincing) and accepting intellectual humility.
When registering to vote, citizens must declare whether they are Democrat, Republican or independent-no party. However, there are several gradations of belief within each political stance. Three sources can assist individuals better realize their — and others’ — political viewpoints.
Pew Research quiz
Which of these nine political profiles best identifies you? Or do you even know? Faith and Flag Conservative, Committed Conservative, Populist Right, Ambivalent Right, Stressed Sideliner, Outsider Left, Democratic Mainstay, Establishment Liberal or Progressive Left?
People are also reading…
A simple 16-item quiz can identify where your values land on the political landscape. More than 10,000 Americans were surveyed by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center to create the political typology; the quiz is available at: https://www.PewResearch.org/politics/quiz/political-typology/.
Four of the nine typologies are conservative (40% of the general public), four typologies are liberal (45%) and 15% of the public is smack dab in the middle — the Stressed Sideliners.
Media Bias/Fact Check
The Media Bias/Fact Check is an American website that rates over 3,100 news media for factual accuracy and political bias. Where you obtain your political news speaks volumes.
According to MBFC, you are far-right (die-hard conservative Republican) if these are your news sources: Fox News, Newsmax, OAN (One America News), Breitbart, Heritage Foundation, Sinclair Broadcasting Group, Christian Today, National Review and Washington Examiner.
You lean-right (Republican) if these are your news references: New York Post, Wall Street Journal-opinion section, Barrons, Hoover Institution, Forbes, Rasmussen Reports and Washington Times.
Center-of-the-road, independent and least biased citizens rely on these news authorities: Associated Press, Reuters, National Public Radio, Newsweek, USA Today, Wall Street Journal-news section, Christian Science Monitor, C-Span, Cook Political Reports, Gallup and Pew Research Center.
Lean-to-the-left Americans (Democrat) get their news from ABC, CBS, NBC, Axios, Yahoo News, Politico, The Atlantic and Bloomberg.
MBFC would describe you as far-left (die-hard liberal Democrat) if these are your news informants: CNN, MSNBC, Buzz Feed News, Huffpost, New York Times-opinion section, Mother Jones, Slate and Vox.
Conspiracy-pseudoscience unverifiable information comes from sources such as QAnon.pub, RandPaul.News and InfoWars.com. Questionably sourced news that’s propaganda and disinformation inundated includes Hannity.com, MAGA Daily Report, NRA and National Enquirer.
The Advocates quiz
Finally, the reported No. 1 political quiz that takes one minute to complete, portends to give people a deeper understanding of their political stance and has been taken by over 23 million citizens is available at: https://www.TheAdvocates.org.
The quiz will pinpoint if you are authoritarian, conservative, moderate, progressive or libertarian. The vast majority of people are moderate, followed by libertarian, then progressive, next is conservative and authoritarians are the smallest group in America.
“I have met the enemy, and it is I.”
In this bitterly divided and divisive political environment we live in, maybe a goal for 2022 would be to try to seek a better understanding of ourselves as well as “the other side.” Consider purposely seeking out political news sources from “other camps” than you have done heretofore. Who knows? You may just learn something and become more tolerant and less hostile to others.
There’s hope for all Americans to develop more acceptance and humane treatment of others, let alone intellectual humility. The following bromide may assist to soothe political discord in 2022: I can’t help the way I feel right now, but I can help the way I think and act.
Steve Corbin is an emeritus professor of marketing at the University of Northern Iowa and former Denver Board of Education member. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not reflect those of the University of Northern Iowa.
