With America’s politics being increasingly polarized, it’s worth giving some thought to the issues are not partisan. What makes an issue cross party lines? In San Diego, a proposal to limit growth has split the Democratic party:
“The ‘Yes on A’ side was unable to address the racial problem, in a way that clearly made our African-American voting members very uncomfortable,” he said. “Some language in the initiative seemed coded, things like defending neighborhood character and preventing urbanization – those are words long associated with communities of color. The optics of their case just were not good.” . . .
A watershed moment? As Democrats are ascendant in local politics, we’ve been keeping a close eye for clues that traditionally right-of-center groups are reorienting themselves.
Is this the start of a relationship between the Democratic Party, and the Building Industry Association, which vehemently opposes Measure A?
“The alliance might be shifting, but I’m not sure it’s settled yet and I wouldn’t say this is a beginning of a relationship with the BIA or any other institution,” Rodriguez-Kennedy said. “You might see the BIA endorse Democrats, but I don’t think it’s fundamentally changed the coalition.” . . .
While lots of Democrats had already sided against Measure A, so too had many lined up for it. The Climate Action Campaign, a nonprofit group led by Nicole Capretz that started to push cities into adopting and enforcing aggressive plans to combat climate change and shift to renewable energy, has endorsed the “Yes on A” side.
In Virginia, the housing issue also crosses party lines. Some Democrats are pushing for more housing development in the DC suburbs, while others are wary:
H.B. 152 is almost certain to face pushback in Virginia, a state where Democrats now control the legislature for the first time since the 1990s. Housing and zoning don’t line up neatly with traditional partisan divides on other issues, though. Conservatives may wind up backing the measure as a market deregulation, while liberals might balk at a measure that could bring density to their doorstep.
School vouchers are another example of an issue that crosses party lines. Another example is occupational licensure:
Inequality and low productivity growth are two of the biggest problems that vex the U.S. economy. For Jonathan Rothwell, they are of a piece, driven by the power of large and influential groups of professionals in fields like finance, medicine, and law to wall themselves off from competition.
Rothwell, formerly of Brookings Institution and now Gallup’s senior economist, shows that the United States is unique among the advanced nations in the power afforded to these groups. The huge differences in incomes we see in this country are not the result of education or skills, but of political power. Inequality in the United States is also bound up with race and racism, from slavery, to the exclusion of minorities from early professional organizations, to exclusionary zoning that denies minority and low-income people access to suburban schools.
Suppose each party contains a coalition of disparate interest groups. Then an issue will be non-partisan if it splits the voters in each party. Thus affluent GOP suburbanites and Democratic public school teachers may both oppose school vouchers, while free market ideologues (GOP) and minority parents may support them.
Home building may be supported by younger and minority voters (Dem) who can’t afford a home, and also by free market ideologues plus building contractors (GOP). Occupational licensing may be supported by affluent GOP professionals and also by Democratic union members, and opposed by free market ideologues plus minority voters.
When issues are non-partisan, they become invisible to the media. That creates a distorted perception among voters. Many of the most important issues facing America don’t even come up in debate, as they are not seen as part of the political war between the parties. As parties become more tribal, they shy away from these non-partisan issues, in fear of alienating members of their own party.
The GOP tends to demonize “socialism” and hence doesn’t want to highlight the fact that their members often support socialistic policies such as trade barriers, regulatory barriers to entry, farm subsidies, and social insurance for the elderly. The Democrats like to rail against the evils of unrestrained capitalism, and hence don’t wish to emphasize areas where more capitalism would help the poor.
In my view, the most important problems facing the country are typically issues that neither party wishes to discuss.
PS. The NYT claims that “non-compete clauses” in labor contracts are also an issue that crosses party lines. What are some others?
READER COMMENTS
Phil H
Jan 21 2020 at 8:36pm
I think one biggie is foreign policy. Brexit is a great example, but so were Obama’s use of drones, and trade under Trump. The two big groups that constitute the right are business and nationalists, so the question of free trade is a wedge issue for them.
Scott Sumner
Jan 21 2020 at 10:58pm
Good point.
Nodnarb the Nasty
Jan 21 2020 at 9:43pm
I think farm subsidies are a lot less partisan than you do. D’s and R’s both love their farmers, for obvious reasons. Heck, most politicians in functioning democracies around the world love their farmers.
Why this is, given that farms are dying, I don’t know, but it probably has to do with nostalgia and a fear of relying on strangers for food.
Matthias Görgens
Jan 21 2020 at 10:30pm
Farmers are often well organised as voters.
Scott Sumner
Jan 21 2020 at 10:58pm
I agree that farm subsidies are not a partisan issue.
Mark Z
Jan 22 2020 at 2:39am
One issue that I think would have some cross-party appeal is reforming public housing toward a voucher type framework. Instead of building high-rises in ghettos and giving discounted units to poor people, just give them rent money that can be spent anywhere. It’d appeal to the right for being more ‘free market’ and cutting administrative costs, and to the left for improving mobility for poor people, so they don’t have to live in a housing project in order to get affordable housing, and getting rid of the ‘all or nothing’ aspect of public housing (e.g., a $1000 a month voucher could be used for a $1200 a month unit) allowing for greater flexibility.
Of course I don’t know what people actually think of such proposals, since, as you say, many issues don’t get much coverage, so we don’t know what most people don’t think about them. Discussing such issues does warrant some caution though: there’s some research in political psychology suggesting that merely presenting an issue in a partisan context – even it’s not really a partisan issue – is enough to induce people to line up according to which side they believe supports/opposes it. It may be easy for opponents of a sound, non-partisan policy to frame it in a partisan way and poison the well for anyone listening, which may be one reason why there are so few issues perceived as non-partisan.
Michael W
Jan 22 2020 at 12:37pm
Ever heard of Section 8 Vouchers? They do exactly what you describe – offer rent vouchers to poor people to rent any unit they wish. Full disclosure: I am one of those landlords with Section 8 tenants. The money appears in my account electronically from the state on the 1st business day of the month without fail and the tenant has a decent place to live that is fully private and maintained by private owners.
I don’t know of any city that’s building “building high-rises in ghettos,” but I do know some that are tearing them down and providing vouchers.
It is true that some uninformed landlords refuse to accept Section 8 vouchers but based on my experience, I’d have no trouble accepting them in the future.
Mark Z
Jan 22 2020 at 7:03pm
I’m aware that there are federal vouchers, but that’s about as much as I know about it. Many section 8 vouchers, it’s worth noting, are not portable but project specific. And big cities – including mine – still mostly just give people units in designated public housing, and most of the developments are clustered in certain neighborhoods. I’d be curious what % of recipients of housing assistance get vouchers vs. getting a unit in a city public housing development. After doing a little research, in my city at least, the vast majority of people in public housing are residents of city-owned projects, and only about 20% of people ‘with public housing’ are section 8 voucher recipients. I expect most big cities are like this.
Hazel Meade
Jan 23 2020 at 10:40am
Michael W is correct though. Many cities are tearing down old housing projects as a means to encourage gentrification. So Section 8 voucher use is on the rise. There’s a broad consensus that housing projects concentrate policy and increase crime.
Miguel Madeira
Jan 22 2020 at 10:13am
Vacines? (distrusted both by new age left and some anti-establishment right)
Raw milk? (defended both by new age left and some anti-establishment right)
Intellectual property? (libertarian right and “property is theft” left on one side and the pro-business right and many left-wing artists and intellectuals on the other side)
Free-range parenting laws? (where some “the parents have the right to educate their children as they like” right-wing and some “leave the kids alone” and/or “punitve laws harm specially the poor and minorities” left-wing agree).
Unschooling? (some “homeschooling” right-wing and some “leave the kids alone” left-wing)
Human cloning? (religious right and “nature is good, technology is bad” left are both against)
Porn? (religious right and feminist left against)
Violent videogames? (some religious right – and perhaps also some pro-gun right – isagainst, and some pacifist and anti-“toxic masculinity” left are against also).
Sillicon Valley? (demonized by some right – because “left-wing bias” – and some left – because “enables hate speech” and is “monopolistic”)
Nerd culture in general? (some left-wing thinks that is much “white, male and privileged” and some right-wing thinks that is much “beta male and coastal elitist”)
Scott Sumner
Jan 22 2020 at 3:24pm
Very good list.
Thaomas
Jan 22 2020 at 2:18pm
The neo-liberal approach to environmental regulation — taxation of negative externalities — is similarly non-partisan. “Progressives do not believe markets will work and “Conservatives” oppose anything that implies more taxing power for the state for fear that the taxes could become progressive.
P Burgos
Jan 22 2020 at 8:49pm
Marijuana legalization? I don’t think that many people on the left oppose it, and I think Republicans are split, but with a large contingent of libertarian and unchurched working class Republicans supporting it.
Incentives for businesses at local and state level?
I suspect that the common thread will be that the nonpartisan contentious issues will be ones that do not activate partisan identities. A lot of local issues will be like that, as they deal with the nitty gritty of making living in a metropolitan area bearable.
Hazel Meade
Jan 23 2020 at 10:22am
I suspect a lot of non-partisan issues could be regarded as “unclaimed territory”, either for a third party to step in and seize control of, or for Democrat and Republican coalitions to evolve to encompass. The Trump coalition clearly creates opportunities for Democrats to move in on the free trade position, though that would simultaneously force them to push unions to the side. It just depends on what configuration makes for a stable political alliance. Non-partisan issues are places where the coalitions that make up the parties are a bit unstable and open to reconfiguration.
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