Every four years when it gets close to the November Presidential election there seems to be an article about couples who don’t agree on which candidate for President to vote for. This year is no exception. In the October 27, 2020 New York Times there is an article entitled “More Partisanship, but Happier Couples?” by Claire Cain Miller. See the entire article at https://nyti.ms/3mqc9g6 Following are some quotes from the article which I think are significant.
Politically mixed marriages are rare, and over the last four years, Americans have become less willing to date someone with different political views, research has shown.
Now there’s evidence that the heightened partisanship has — paradoxically — led politically mixed couples to understand each other better than before.
Party registrations don’t necessarily represent political views. Still, it is striking that one in 10 voters who are registered as a Democrat or Republican are married to someone in the opposite party, according to a recent paper. The paper, by Eitan Hersh of Tufts and Yair Ghitza of Catalist, a research firm, analyzed voter registration data on 18.3 million married, opposite-sex couples.
Most people who disagree with their partners about politics avoid the topic, the American Perspectives Survey found. Voter turnout is lower for mixed-partisan couples, who may skip voting to minimize conflict, Professor Hersh said.
Married couples over age 80 are significantly more likely to be in the same party as married couples under 30, the political science paper found.
It will be interesting to see if the results of the election change anything.
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