Three recent articles in The Economist and Reason suggest that the typical Republican and the typical Democrat hate each other more and more at the same time as they are becoming more and more similar. In the first article, The Economist reports on Pew Research Center surveys revealing that Republicans and Democrats have increasingly demonized individuals of the other group (“How Democrats and Republicans See Each Other,” The Economist, August 17, 2022):

A survey of American adults conducted between June 27th and July 4th by the Pew Research Centre, a think-tank, found that 62% of Republicans have a very unfavourable view of Democrats, up from 21% in 1994. The share of Democrats with similar views of Republicans has increased from 17% to 54% during the same period. …

Americans are increasingly willing to not only express their disapproval of members of the other party, but to assign them negative personality traits. According to Pew, large majorities of Democrats and Republicans now regard those in the opposing party as closed-minded, dishonest and immoral. … Roughly half of each group says that members of the other party are less intelligent.

The second article is an impressive piece by Stephanie Slade, “Both Left and Right Are Converging on Authoritarianism” in the October 2022 issue of Reason. Slade documents how Republicans and Democrats are increasingly converging on the desirability of using the power of the state to intervene in the economy and in individual choices.  Just consider that both parties have become more protectionist and more tempted by industrial policy. Or consider how both want to control free speech, the Democrats by pushing social media companies to exert private censorship, the Republicans by preventing them from doing so (Florida governor Ron DeSantis is a beautiful example of Republican attack on free speech). Slade writes:

This is what feels most broken in our politics. It’s not the ways left and right are further apart than ever; it’s the ways they’re closer together.

The third article, in the current issue of The Economist, argues that, as its title indicate, “Republicans Are Falling Out of Love With America Inc.” (issue dated August 25, 2022). A few highlights:

Mr Vance [backed by Trump to replace Ohio Senator Rob Portman] calls big technology firms “enemies of Western civilisation” and casts elite managers as part of “the regime”, with interests anathema to those of America’s heartland. …

Executives and lobbyists interviewed by The Economist, speaking on condition of anonymity, described Republicans as becoming more hostile in both tone and, increasingly, substance. …

Long-held right-of-centre orthodoxies—in favour of free trade and competition, against industrial policy—are in flux. …

[Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL)] has backed the formation of workers’ councils at companies, an alternative to unions. In March Tom Cotton of Arkansas called for Americans to “reject the ideology of globalism” by curbing immigration, banning some American investments in China and suggesting Congress should “punish offshoring to China”. Republicans in Congress have co sponsored several bills with Democrats to rein in big tech. Mr Vance … has proposed raising taxes on companies that move jobs abroad. …

These days, worries a business grandee, both parties see it as “acceptable to use state power to get private entities to conform to their viewpoints”. …

Senator Ted Cruz of Texas has blamed Larry Fink, BlackRock’s boss, for high petrol prices. …

Companies are adjusting to this new, more volatile political reality. Some are creating formal processes for reviewing the risks of speaking out on social issues that may provoke a political backlash, including from Republicans. …

So far this year corporate PACs have funnelled 54% of their campaign donations to Republicans, down from 63% in 2012.

How can the individuals of each party hate their fellow citizens of the other party more and more while the two parties are coming closer ideologically? The reason is that their ideologies are essentially two shades of political authoritarianism. Each group wants to coercively impose its preferences on individuals of the other group, to restrict the latter’s liberty. The main difference is what exactly they want to impose on others. Slade expresses the same idea:

The two camps, of course, have different substantive moral visions for the society they wish to construct. But each views a broad conception of individual liberty as a barrier to achieving that vision.

She also mentions a study that looks more encouraging:

The American Aspirations Index, a study released last year that used survey research to rank Americans’ priorities for the future of the country, tested 55 “national aspirations.” … For all the sense that Americans are further apart than ever, guaranteeing that “people have individual rights” emerged as the No. 1 answer for every demographic group, regardless of age, ethnicity, urbanity, gender, and education level.

Is this optimism justified? Casual observation suggests that when Americans are asked precise questions, instead of being polled on general statements of principle, political authoritarianism shows not far below the surface (although not as much as in some other countries). An Ipsos poll of four years ago asked Americans if “the president should have the authority to close news outlets engaged in bad behavior.” Although a bare majority of 53% of the total sample disagreed, fully 26% agreed—43% among Republicans agree and 12% among Democrats.

Moreover, The Economist shows, perhaps unwittingly, how the Republicans, to start with, were not, or not much, in favor or free markets, where consumers are sovereign and producers, if they want to make money, compete to sell them what they want. What the typical Republican favored were rather corporate interests, which just happened to support the free market when they were not too much protected against domestic or foreign competition. The Economist writes:

In the words of an executive at a big financial firm, “We expect Democrats to hate us.” What is new is disdain from those on the right. There used to be a time, one lobbyist recalls with nostalgia, when “you would walk into a Republican office with a company and the question would be, ‘How can I help you?’”

In sharp contrast to the “road to serfdom” on which both the Republican and Democratic tribes are pushing the country, the (classical) liberal vision and (most of) the libertarian beliefs want each individual to be free to think and live as he wants, within the confines of minimal, general, and impersonal laws that apply equally to everybody (including the politicians and bureaucrats, of course).