LIBERAL INTERNATIONALISM, PUBLIC OPINION, AND PARTISAN CONFLICT IN THE UNITED STATES

Partisan conflict in the United States goes far beyond what existed in the days of more heterogeneous Democratic and Republican political parties as described in the election and early voting studies of the mid-twentieth century.¹ Rather, it has been characterized by striking ideological polarization among party leaders, with the disappearance of moderate centrists, particularly among Republicans in Congress and elsewhere. Most strikingly, Republicans and Democrats have become consistently conservative and liberal, respectively, across an increasingly wide range of issues. Among the mass public there may not be full-blown polarization, but there has clearly been wide-scale “partisan sorting,” with strong Republicans