National Press Foundation's video: Charlie Cook on Partisanship 2022 Media

5 TAKEAWAYS: ➀The population is disgusted with the other side of the political divide. Democrats have a deep-seated, visceral dislike of Republicans – and the feelings are mutual. “The Public Religion Research Institute had a survey in 2019 that 80% of Democrats believe that the Republican Party has been taken over by racists – 80%,” said Charlie Cook, one of the nation’s leading political analysts. “And 82% of Republicans believe the Democratic Party has been taken over by socialists.” ➁ Sky-high voting numbers were driven by fear. Cook has been watching elections for decades and the number of Americans who say it “really matters” who wins the presidency jumped to 83% last year – the highest level in six elections the question has been asked. What’s driving the increase? Fear. Large majorities of both Biden and Trump supporters said before the 2020 election that the other guy winning would lead to “lasting harm” for the nation. To Cook, that’s discouraging and scary – and lead to incidents such as the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. “The thing about it is, these people clearly thought the country was in danger,” he said. Overall, voter turnout was the highest it’s been in 120 years. ➂ The Senate is evenly divided, but far more entrenched in red and blue silos than it once was. The Senate has been divided before. But from 1955 to 1980, there were regularly 15 to 25 states that sent one Republican and one Democrat to represent them, Cook said. Now, only six states have such split delegations. ➃ Candidate quality has become irrelevant. “Let's say you’re a Republican,” Cook said. “No matter how horrible your party’s candidate might be, you’re going to vote for them for no matter what – and the same thing over on the Democratic side. … Candidate quality means nothing at all.” ➄ The advent of more opinionated journalism is partially to blame for inflaming partisanship. The Cook Political Report is religiously nonpartisan and Cook himself old school. But “journalism has changed,” he said. Before, there were rules in news coverage – “who, what, when, where, and nothing that could remotely involve a value judgment could go in a news story.” That’s not the case any more. Straight reporting became explanatory journalism, which led to analysis, which was a short step to opinion. “That wall started eroding,” he said.