tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/pew-25640/articlesPew – The Conversation2020-10-06T12:18:51Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1468212020-10-06T12:18:51Z2020-10-06T12:18:51ZWhy friendships are falling apart over politics<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361746/original/file-20201005-20-d12v7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=702%2C587%2C2504%2C1856&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Something about our current moment seems to have put a particular strain on our personal relationships.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/single-biden-harris-supporter-holds-a-sign-as-as-supporters-news-photo/1228893532?adppopup=true">Alex Edelman/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Former Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia were on opposite sides of the political spectrum. Yet despite their obvious legal disagreements, the liberal Ginsburg once described herself and the conservative Scalia as “<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/09/20/supreme-friends-ruth-bader-ginsburg-and-antonin-scalia/5844533002/">best buddies</a>.” </p>
<p>This connection across ideological lines may seem surprising today. A striking feature of the current political moment is the extent to which it has affected personal relationships, <a href="https://civicscience.com/the-majority-of-americans-are-also-social-distancing-from-politics/">with friendships fissuring over political issues</a>.</p>
<p>In fact, a <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/09/18/few-trump-or-biden-supporters-have-close-friends-who-back-the-opposing-candidate/">recent Pew study</a> showed just how deep that divide has become. The survey found that roughly 40% of registered voters said that they do not have a single close friend backing a different presidential candidate.</p>
<p>The old mantra to “never discuss religion or politics” was a recognition that political differences can create awkward social situations. And research <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650216644025">my colleagues and I conducted found</a> that the mere prospect of discussing divisive topics can make you feel anxious and threatened. </p>
<p>Yet something about our current moment seems to have put a particular strain on our personal relationships.</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=gx1K4Z8AAAAJ&hl=en">As a social psychologist and communication researcher</a>, I’ve noticed two key features of today’s political environment that are making friendships across the political divide challenging: the role of social media and the way in which political affiliations have become linked to morality and identity.</p>
<h2>Antisocial media</h2>
<p>While social media <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1177/0963721417730833">may have its benefits</a>, it’s more difficult to have an in-depth, respectful discussion of issues while <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2016/10/25/the-political-environment-on-social-media/">online</a>. Written posts can be misinterpreted. The character limits of a tweet or post may prevent users from relaying the full complexity of their views, while the relative <a href="https://helpfulprofessor.com/media-richness-theory/">impersonality of online communication</a> may make it easy to forget that there is a real person behind the screen. </p>
<p>Furthermore, media companies have <a href="https://medium.com/@dgoldyoung/the-asymmetrical-exploitability-of-political-psychology-through-messaging-aesthetics-d2f3c6b5db0">financial incentives</a> to keep people engaged and enraged. Messages that are <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/10/09/768489375/how-outrage-is-hijacking-our-culture-and-our-minds">more emotional are more widely shared</a>, thus people are more likely to see posts that <a href="https://nonzero.org/post/avoiding-civil-war">fuel outrage</a> toward the other side. Divisive content may also originate with trolls or disinformation campaigns <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2019.1661889">intentionally designed to increase social division</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Scalia sits next to Ginsburg at the National Press Club in 2014." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361683/original/file-20201005-14-tfp1z5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361683/original/file-20201005-14-tfp1z5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361683/original/file-20201005-14-tfp1z5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361683/original/file-20201005-14-tfp1z5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361683/original/file-20201005-14-tfp1z5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361683/original/file-20201005-14-tfp1z5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361683/original/file-20201005-14-tfp1z5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Friendships like that of former Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg are becoming less common.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/supreme-court-justices-antonin-scalia-and-ruth-bader-news-photo/485357525?adppopup=true">Alex Wong/Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Identity and morality</h2>
<p>Second, it seems as though political issues are becoming more intertwined with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-polisci-051117-073034">individuals’ identities</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-063020-030612">sense of morality</a>.</p>
<p>When being a supporter of a particular politician or party is a strong part of one’s sense of identity, it may be easier to view the other side in a negative way. </p>
<p>Humans have a <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7777651/">need to belong</a> and <a href="https://www.simplypsychology.org/social-identity-theory.html">to be part of groups</a>, and this “us versus them” mentality can arise even if people don’t have strong positions on political issues. Hearing a lot about politics as the election approaches keeps people focused on these identities.</p>
<p>Politicians or media outlets can <a href="https://theconversation.com/fox-news-uses-the-word-hate-much-more-than-msnbc-or-cnn-145983">reinforce this sense of conflict</a>. Politicians often attempt to draw contrasts between themselves and their opponents, sometimes by disparaging the supporters on the other side, whether it’s Hillary Clinton’s <a href="https://www.npr.org/2016/09/10/493427601/hillary-clintons-basket-of-deplorables-in-full-context-of-this-ugly-campaign">“basket of deplorables” comment</a> during the 2016 election or Trump’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/08/20/expansive-repetitive-universe-trumps-twitter-insults/">regular barrage of Twitter insults</a>, which have included retweeting a video in which someone says, “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/05/28/trump-retweets-video-saying-only-good-democrat-is-dead-democrat/">The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat</a>.”</p>
<p>Then there are the issues that are highlighted. It’s one thing to disagree about tax policy. It’s quite another to disagree about whether certain groups deserve fundamental rights, or whether the other side supports “<a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/02/republicans-extreme-abortion-rhetoric-wrong-and-dangerous.html">killing babies</a>” or “<a href="https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2019/sep/13/joe-biden/fact-checking-biden-use-cages-during-obama-adminis/">locking kids in cages</a>.” </p>
<p>When one person believes the policies and politicians supported by another person are inherently evil or immoral, it’s difficult to maintain a friendship. </p>
<p>[<em>The Conversation’s science, health and technology editors pick their favorite stories.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-favorite">Weekly on Wednesdays</a>.]</p>
<h2>Don’t forget the other 60%</h2>
<p>On the hopeful side, the Pew survey suggests that six in 10 registered voters do have close friends on the other side of the political divide.</p>
<p>Just as so-called “<a href="https://theconversation.com/red-state-blue-state-how-colors-took-sides-in-politics-93541">red states</a>” and “<a href="https://theconversation.com/red-state-blue-state-how-colors-took-sides-in-politics-93541">blue states</a>” are all actually “purple states” – and contain people across the political spectrum – many Americans’ friendships remain intact, despite a stressful election cycle. </p>
<p>These reminders of shared affection and values may help bring the country together no matter the outcome of November’s contentious election.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/146821/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melanie Green does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A recent Pew survey showed just how deep the divide has become, with about 40% of registered voters saying that they didn’t have a single close friend supporting a different presidential candidate.Melanie Green, Professor of Communication, University at BuffaloLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/971552018-05-31T10:45:27Z2018-05-31T10:45:27ZWhy poverty is rising faster in suburbs than in cities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220713/original/file-20180529-80650-oss2gi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An American suburb.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jansgate/35714979173/">jansgate/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/crece-la-pobreza-en-los-suburbios-de-eeuu-mas-que-en-las-ciudades-98921"><em>Leer en español</em></a>.</p>
<p>In the U.S., the geography of poverty is shifting.</p>
<p><a href="http://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/05/22100715/Pew-Research-Center-Community-Type-Full-Report-FINAL.pdf">According to a May report from the Pew Research Center</a>, since 2000, suburban counties have experienced sharper increases in poverty than urban or rural counties.</p>
<p>This is consistent with <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/book/confronting-suburban-poverty-in-america/">research across the U.S. over the past decade</a> – as well as my own book, <a href="https://www.russellsage.org/publications/places-need">“Places in Need.”</a></p>
<p>The suburbanization of poverty is one of the most important demographic trends of the last 50 years. Poverty rates across the suburban landscape have increased by 50 percent since 1990. The number of suburban residents living in high poverty areas has almost tripled in that time. </p>
<p>These new trends are not just occurring in the wake of the Great Recession. In 1990, there were nearly as many poor people in the suburbs of the largest 100 U.S. metropolitan areas as within the cities of those metros, even though poverty rates historically have been much higher in cities.</p>
<p>Why is poverty rising faster in suburbs than in cities? <a href="http://scottwallard.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/murphy_allard_focus_2015.pdf">There are many reasons</a>. Population growth in suburbs plays a part – the U.S. has become a suburban nation. However, that’s not the most important factor. <a href="https://www.russellsage.org/publications/places-need">My research</a> finds that suburban poverty is growing three times faster than population size in suburban communities across the country. </p>
<p>As in cities and rural communities, poverty is rising in suburbs because of the changing nature of the labor market. For those in low-skill jobs, <a href="http://thehill.com/opinion/finance/351259-despite-rosy-data-millions-of-americans-languish-in-poverty">earnings have stayed flat for the last 40 years</a>. In most suburbs, unemployment rates were twice as high in 2014 as in 1990. Good-paying jobs that don’t require advanced training have started to disappear in suburbs, just as they did in central cities more than a quarter century ago. </p>
<p>These national employment trends have contributed to rising poverty everywhere, but the impact has been particularly acute in suburbs, where there are a large percentage of workers without advanced education or vocational training. </p>
<p>Rising suburban poverty has surprising implications for the safety net. <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/strained-suburbs-the-social-service-challenges-of-rising-suburban-poverty/">Many suburbs lack the resources needed</a> to respond to growing poverty. For example, I’ve found the typical urban county spends nearly 10 times as much on human service programs per low-income person as the typical suburban county.</p>
<p>What can be done? I have a few suggestions. </p>
<p>First, the U.S. must maintain federal funding of safety net programs like food stamps, <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/safety-net-more-effective-against-poverty-than-previously-thought">which are effective at reducing poverty</a>. Increasing public funding of human service programs also will help to support those weathering a spell of unemployment or seeking to advance in the labor market. Communities must find ways to cultivate a new generation of local leaders and nonprofit organizations capable of tackling suburban poverty challenges.</p>
<p>Finally, poverty problems continue to rise, albeit at slower rates, in cities and rural communities. Across geographic boundaries, the nation has a shared interest in the fight against poverty. If we cannot come together on this issue, we will not be successful in that fight in any one place – urban, rural or suburban.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97155/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott W. Allard has received research grants supporting his work on social welfare policy from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Russell Sage Foundation, The Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program, The New York Community Trust, the University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research (UKCPR), the University of Wisconsin’s IRP, and the Rural Policy Research Institute (RUPRI). He is a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program.</span></em></p>Poverty rates across the suburban landscape have increased by 50 percent since 1990. This suburbanization of poverty is one of the most important demographic trends of the last 50 years.Scott W. Allard, Professor of Social Policy, University of WashingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/875752017-12-14T03:57:25Z2017-12-14T03:57:25ZThere’s no place like home for the holidays – and that’s what makes the pandemic’s winter surge particularly devastating<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198804/original/file-20171212-9389-116jopo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">George Henry Durrie's 'Winter in the Country: A Cold Morning' (1861).</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/11/VMFA_92-124_v1_CS_XL-1024x728.jpg">Virginia Museum of Fine Arts</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>While Christmas playlists often include cheesy favorites like “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” and “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus,” there are also a handful of wistful tracks that go a little bit deeper. </p>
<p>Listen closely to “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” or “White Christmas,” and you’ll hear a deep yearning for home and sorrow at having to spend the holidays somewhere else. </p>
<p>During no holiday season in recent memory have these songs resonated so deeply with so many. The pandemic has upended holiday traditions, and for those who eagerly anticipate annual visits to their hometowns to celebrate with loved ones, the cancellations of these plans are yet another blow to endure in a long, grinding year. </p>
<p>Strip away the cursory Christmas rituals – the TV specials, the lights, the gifts, the music – and what remains is home. It is the beating heart of the holiday, and its importance reflects our primal need to have a meaningful relationship with a setting – a place that transcends the boundary between the self and the physical world. </p>
<h2>Can you love a place like a person?</h2>
<p>Most of us can probably name at least one place we feel an emotional connection to. But you probably don’t realize just how much a place can influence your sense of who you are, or how essential it is for your psychological well-being. </p>
<p>Psychologists even possess an entire vocabulary for the affectionate bonds between people and places: There’s “<a href="http://www.placeness.com/topophilia-and-topophils/">topophilia</a>,” “<a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272494498900780">rootedness</a>” and “<a href="http://www.elixirpublishers.com/articles/1350368123_45%20(2012)%207637-7641.pdf">attachment to place</a>,” which are all used to describe the feelings of comfort and security that bind us to a place. </p>
<p>Your fondness for a place – whether it’s the house where you lived your whole life, or the fields and woods where you played as a child – can even mimic the affection you feel for other people. </p>
<p>Studies have shown that a forced relocation <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/homesickness-9780195371857?cc=us&lang=en&">can elicit heartbreak and distress</a> every bit as intense as the loss of a loved one. <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00923265">Another study found</a> that if you feel a strong attachment to your town or city, you’ll be more satisfied with your house and you’ll also be less anxious about your future.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198808/original/file-20171212-9396-1qj0z26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198808/original/file-20171212-9396-1qj0z26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198808/original/file-20171212-9396-1qj0z26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198808/original/file-20171212-9396-1qj0z26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198808/original/file-20171212-9396-1qj0z26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198808/original/file-20171212-9396-1qj0z26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198808/original/file-20171212-9396-1qj0z26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Gusztáv Magyar Mannheimer’s ‘Factory Site at the Outskirts of Budapest’ (1893).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Magyar_Mannheimer_Guszt%C3%A1v(1859-1937)_Budapesti_k%C3%BClv%C3%A1rosi_gy%C3%A1rtelep.jpg">Hungarian National Gallery</a></span>
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<p>Our physical surroundings play an important role in creating meaning and organization in our lives; much of how we view our lives and what we have become depends on where we’ve lived, and the experiences we’ve had there. </p>
<p>So it’s no surprise that architecture professor Kim Dovey, who has studied the concept of home and the experience of homelessness, <a href="http://www.asu.edu/courses/aph294/total-readings/dovey%20--%20homeandhomelessness.pdf">confirmed that</a> where we live is closely tied to our sense of who we are.</p>
<h2>An anchor of order and comfort</h2>
<p>At the same time, the concept of home can be slippery. </p>
<p>One of the first questions we ask when we meet someone new is “Where are you from?” But we seldom pause to consider how complicated that question is. Does it mean where you currently live? Where you were born? Where you grew up? </p>
<p>Environmental psychologists <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0013916587192004">have long understood</a> that the word “home” clearly connotes more than just a house. It encompasses people, places, objects and memories. </p>
<p>So what or where, exactly, do people consider “home”? </p>
<p><a href="http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2008/12/17/who-moves-who-stays-put-wheres-home/">A 2008 Pew study</a> asked people to identify “the place in your heart you consider to be home.” Twenty-six percent reported that home was where they were born or raised; only 22% said that it was where they currently lived. Eighteen percent identified home as the place that they had lived the longest, and 15% felt that it was where most of their extended family had come from. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198805/original/file-20171212-9432-1qenw26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198805/original/file-20171212-9432-1qenw26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198805/original/file-20171212-9432-1qenw26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198805/original/file-20171212-9432-1qenw26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198805/original/file-20171212-9432-1qenw26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198805/original/file-20171212-9432-1qenw26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198805/original/file-20171212-9432-1qenw26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Matsumoto Shunsuke’s ‘Suburban Landscape’ (1938).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MatsumotoShunsuke_Suburban_Landscape_1938.png">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
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<p>But if you look at different cultures across time, a common thread emerges.</p>
<p>No matter where they come from, people tend to think about home as a central place that represents order, a counterbalance to the chaos that exists elsewhere. This might explain why, when asked to draw a picture of “where you live,” children and adolescents around the world invariably <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/record/1989-18531-001">place their house in the center of the sheet of paper</a>. In short, it’s what everything else revolves around. </p>
<p>Anthropologists Charles Hart and Arnold Pilling lived among the the Tiwi People of Bathurst Island off the coast of Northern Australia during the 1920s. They noted that the Tiwi <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/10573352?selectedversion=NBD5272312">thought</a> their island was the only habitable place in the world; to them, everywhere else was the “land of the dead.” </p>
<p>The <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4899-2266-3_1">Zuni of the American Southwest</a>, meanwhile, have long viewed the house as a living thing. It’s where they raise their kids and communicate with spirits, and there’s an annual ritual – called the <em>Shalako</em> – in which homes are blessed and consecrated as part of the year-end winter solstice celebration.</p>
<p>The ceremony strengthens bonds to the community, to the family – including dead ancestors – and to the spirits and gods by dramatizing the connection each party has to the home.</p>
<p>During the holidays, we might not officially bless our home like the Zuni. But our holiday traditions probably sound familiar: eating with family, exchanging gifts, catching up with old friends and visiting old haunts. These homecoming rituals affirm and renew a person’s place in the family and often are a <a href="http://faculty.knox.edu/fmcandre/enviropsychbook.html">key way to strengthen the family’s social fabric</a>. </p>
<p>Home, therefore, is a predictable and secure place where you feel in control and properly oriented in space and time; it is a bridge between your past and your present, an enduring tether to your family and friends.</p>
<p>It is a place where, as the poet <a href="https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/robert-frost">Robert Frost</a> aptly wrote, “When you have to go there, they have to take you in.”</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an article published on Dec. 13, 2017.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87575/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frank T. McAndrew does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Home can be a slippery concept. But psychologists have long understood that it plays a huge role in self-identity and emotional well-being.Frank T. McAndrew, Cornelia H. Dudley Professor of Psychology, Knox CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/826302017-10-04T01:09:49Z2017-10-04T01:09:49ZWhy people around the world fear climate change more than Americans do<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187186/original/file-20170922-17267-1l4suua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Who's afraid of rising sea levels?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/New-Arctic-Icebergs-Gallery/7348e01bbde5401090364c1ad8a14746/10/1">David Goldman/AP Photo</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When asked about major threats to their country, Europeans are more likely than Americans to cite global climate change, according to a <a href="http://www.pewglobal.org/2017/08/01/globally-people-point-to-isis-and-climate-change-as-leading-security-threats/">Pew Research Center survey</a>. Just 56 percent of Americans see climate change as a major threat, versus an average of 64 percent of Europeans surveyed.</p>
<p>Why the difference? Like climate data itself, data regarding public concern for climate change are “noisy.” Public response can vary depending on what’s going on in the news that week. Surveys of these types of surveys <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/wcc.120">find no single explanation</a> for how the public perceives the threat of climate change.</p>
<p>Of course, many explanations exist. As a climatologist who has taught university classes and given public lectures on global climate change for 30 years, I find it clear that public concern about climate change has evolved dramatically over the past three decades. In the U.S., now more than ever, it seems tied to ideology. </p>
<h1>Knowing the facts</h1>
<p>Does <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2017.04.008">scientific literacy</a> influence responses? Some psychologists think so. Indeed, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2997">some surveys</a> show that Europeans have significantly greater scientific knowledge about the causes of climate change than Americans. </p>
<p>It’s possible that such knowledge translates into a sense of responsibility for mitigating climate change. But having more general scientific knowledge is not as relevant as knowing <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2039">specifically about climate change</a>. </p>
<p>A person’s outlook on the world can also complicate matters.
<a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/04/19/5-ways-americans-and-europeans-are-different/">Another recent Pew survey</a> found that Americans are more likely to believe they control their own destiny and that they “tend to prioritize individual liberty, while Europeans tend to value the role of the state to ensure no one in society is in need.” </p>
<p>Research on the respective roles of scientific literacy and worldview reaches different conclusions. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2039">Psychologist Sophie Guy and colleagues argue</a> that knowing the causes of climate change makes people more willing to accept the reality of climate change or to moderate their ideological opposition to it. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187188/original/file-20170922-17241-pkmcoh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187188/original/file-20170922-17241-pkmcoh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187188/original/file-20170922-17241-pkmcoh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187188/original/file-20170922-17241-pkmcoh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187188/original/file-20170922-17241-pkmcoh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187188/original/file-20170922-17241-pkmcoh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187188/original/file-20170922-17241-pkmcoh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187188/original/file-20170922-17241-pkmcoh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nuisance flooding – flooding from ordinary high tides exacerbated by sea level rise and accompanying land subsidence – has increased 400 percent in Charleston, South Carolina since 1960.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Climate-Countdown-A-City-Acts/95b8b400b2fc42ac8f5b247eb81e1b35/7/1">Stephen B. Morton/AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By contrast, Yale scholar <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1547">Dan Kahan and colleagues</a> find that people with the highest level of scientific literacy often use that literacy to retain and justify prior beliefs – what they call the “polarizing impact of science literacy.” In other words: “I’m smart, I’ve read the evidence and it confirms my prior understanding.” Climate change reflects a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-006-9072-z">threat</a> not only to one’s local environment, but also to one’s worldview.</p>
<h1>Political affiliation</h1>
<p>When you look more closely at recent survey responses in the U.S., the most striking and consistent finding is that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2014.10.004">political affiliation</a> influences perceptions of climate change. </p>
<p>In the U.S., Democrats report, at consistently higher rates than Republicans, that climate change exists. Merely substituting the term “global warming” – now a politically charged catchword – for “climate change” <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-017-1993-1">makes the differences larger</a>. </p>
<p>The divide between parties within the U.S. far exceeds the divide found between the U.S. as a whole and Europe. Political divisions also exist in Europe, and public opinion polls in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2011.01.016">U.K.</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14693062.2015.1094727">Norway</a> show that party similarly influences the perceived threat of climate change. However, there’s some evidence that the U.S. Republican Party is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12122">anomalous among conservative parties</a> internationally. In other words, U.S. Republicans are more starkly anti-climate change than other conservative parties internationally.</p>
<p>It’s possible that the strong two-party system in the U.S. leads to a more binary mode of thinking on this issue that does not accurately represent that of the scientific community. Sociologist <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2016.08.003">Aaron McCright and his colleagues</a> argue that the high number of Americans identifying with the political right explains why the U.S., unlike other wealthy countries, is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-008-9429-6">less concerned</a> about climate change. </p>
<h1>Closing the gap</h1>
<p>Some suggest that the political divide has fueled an industry of climate change deniers and skeptics, distorting public perception about climate change science. Science historians Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway argue in their book <a href="http://www.merchantsofdoubt.org/">“Merchants of Doubt”</a> that denial is about more than the science. It’s about political and economic systems that individuals hold dear. It also can result from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764212469799">differences in professional culture or personal values</a>. </p>
<p>In the U.S., many of the most vocal skeptics and deniers of climate change emerge from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09644010802055576">conservative think tanks</a> that revere the <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214629616301864">industrial capitalist system</a>.</p>
<p>In Europe, differences between countries can also be explained by the <a href="https://orca.cf.ac.uk/98660/7/EPCC.pdf">voices of conservative think tanks and the media</a>, but these voices are more influential in the U.S. than anywhere else because of the two-party system. Partisan clashes about climate change emerge from influential, well-funded sources that wield great influence on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2016.1263433">Congress, the media and ultimately the public</a>. By contrast, most European countries have more than two parties, and arguably the political influence of corporations is lower. </p>
<p>Given the political divide on climate change in the U.S., addressing this 21st-century threat will require creative thinking that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-8159.2005.09566.x-i1">recognizes different worldviews</a> and “beliefs” in climate change. <a href="https://citizensclimatelobby.org/climate-solutions-caucus/">The U.S. House Climate Solutions Caucus</a> is a step in the right direction.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82630/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gregory J. Carbone does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Europeans are, on average, more likely than Americans to say they fear climate change. What explains the gap?Gregory J. Carbone, Professor of Geography, University of South CarolinaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/800292017-06-27T14:57:54Z2017-06-27T14:57:54ZAfrica is high on the G20 summit agenda. But will Trump thwart progress?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175817/original/file-20170627-24817-l8pllb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">German Chancellor Angela Merkel addresses G20 health ministers in Berlin in May. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Fabrizio Bensch</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When G20 leaders meet in <a href="http://www.hamburg.com/g20-2017/">Hamburg in early July</a> they face a problem not on their formal agenda: how to work around Donald Trump. The US president disdains multilateral financial cooperation, is opposed to US participation in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/time-for-china-and-europe-to-lead-as-trump-dumps-the-paris-climate-deal-78709">Paris Agreement on climate change</a> , has shown little interest in, knowledge of, or desire to partner with African countries.</p>
<p>These core issues frame the 2017 <a href="http://www.bundesfinanzministerium.de/Content/EN/Standardartikel/Topics/Featured/G20/2017-03-30-g20-compact-with-africa.html">G20 agenda</a> with a proposed <a href="http://www.g20.utoronto.ca/2017/161130-agenda.html">“Compact with Africa”</a> slated as the summit’s big initiative. It’s aims will be to encourage private sector investment, support infrastructure development, and greater economic participation and employment in Africa.</p>
<p>In addition to South Africa, the G20’s only African member, the leaders of Guinea, Kenya and Senegal have been invited as guests. </p>
<p>The US convened the first <a href="http://www.g20.utoronto.ca/summits/2008washington.html">2008 G20 Summit</a> in Washington in response to the global financial crisis and has played a leading and constructive role ever since. Such experiments in informal global governance are an anathema to Trump, although he lacks <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/02/opinion/donald-trump-poisons-the-world.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-%E2%80%A6">any experience</a> in such matters. </p>
<p>If Africa is to gain the attention in Hamburg the agenda promises, this will have to be without the support and cooperation of the US, at least while Trump is president. But can anything be achieved while this is the case? </p>
<p>If the G20 is to remain relevant in the quest for more inclusive and fair global governance, Africa offers an historic opportunity for collective action, despite US absence. Most urgent is alleviating <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/no-one-is-paying-attention-to-the-worst-humanitarian-crisis-since-world-war-ii/2017/06/25/70d055f8-5767-11e7-ba90-f5875b7d1876_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-e%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.44e26a3031b">the famine in East Africa</a> while China, India, and others among the G20 are showing fresh interest in Africa’s long-term peace and development. </p>
<h2>The Trump factor</h2>
<p>Trump’s first and <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/05/24/politics/trump-nato-brussels/index.html">only exposure to multilateral summit diplomacy</a> was at NATO’s Brussels headquarters on 25 May. Then immediately to a two-day <a href="http://www.g7italy.it/en/the-taormina-g7-summit">G-7 summit</a> in Sicily. Neither went well. More significant than all the negative media coverage of Trump’s performance, was German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/28/world/europe/angela-merkel-trump-alliances-g7-leaders.html?_r=0">veiled warning</a> that after 70 years, the US under Trump was no longer a credible ally and Europe</p>
<blockquote>
<p>must be ready to take our fate into our own hands.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Merkel’s comments were probably intended for a global and American domestic audience as well. The US foreign policy elite and public continue to support close ties to Europe. Cooperation with Africa also has been generally popular in America. It is one area of foreign assistance that has enjoyed enduring bi-partisan support <a href="https://www.the-american-interest.com/2017/01/25/u-s-africa-policy-recommendations-for-president-trump/">since the early 1990s</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175823/original/file-20170627-24746-1k3m8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175823/original/file-20170627-24746-1k3m8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=659&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175823/original/file-20170627-24746-1k3m8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=659&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175823/original/file-20170627-24746-1k3m8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=659&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175823/original/file-20170627-24746-1k3m8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=828&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175823/original/file-20170627-24746-1k3m8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=828&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175823/original/file-20170627-24746-1k3m8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=828&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">shutterstock.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Trump’s antics in Hamburg could detract from the summit and his recalcitrance may complicate setting and slow implementation of the G20 agenda. But, progress on the <a href="http://www.euronews.com/2017/03/13/view-germany-the-g20-protectionism-and-the-compact-with-africa">Africa Compact</a> is still possible with support from the US private and non-governmental sectors. The same goes for climate change and economic cooperation. </p>
<p>How G20 leaders interact with Trump, and comment publicly on the progress or lack of progress in Hamburg will resonate domestically in the US. In deciding what to say publicly, G20 leaders may want to consider recent and escalating US domestic constraints impinging Trump’s presidency.</p>
<h2>Trump’s domestic constraints</h2>
<p>Trump meets all the definitional criteria of a demagogue. His appeal to popular passions and prejudices rather than reason and facts, secured him a base of support that remains loyal. </p>
<p>He has not broadened his popular appeal, polling favourability ratings around 36%, the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/06/20/the-other-number-that-might-inspire-some-panic-among-congressional-republicans/?utm_term=.6d7e2861fbe9&wpisrc=nl_finance202&wpmm%20=1">lowest ever recorded</a> this early in a first term.</p>
<p>Trump has shown <a href="https://theconversation.com/trumps-leadership-traits-are-bad-news-for-democrats-in-Aafrica-69745%20Among%20G-20">authoritarian traits</a>. And the leaders he appears he will get along with best are those G20 leaders heading authoritarian regimes in China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. The US still has the world’s biggest military and economy, but Trump has yet to earn the respect and deference of his G20 peers.</p>
<p>Politicians sometimes lie, but not all to the same degree. The Washington Post’s nonpartisan Fact Checkers <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-claims-database/?tid=a_inl&utm_term=.c1081f9b2c96">recently documented</a> 623 false and misleading claims by Trump in just his first 137 days in office.</p>
<p>Many Americans may be inured to Trump’s off-hand lies, or view it as a cleaver strategy to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/of-course-trump-called-comey-a-liar-thats-his-strategy/2017/06/12/6ff4b4a8-4fa6-11e7-91eb-9611861a988f_story.html?utm_term=.026ff1a843bf">keep opponents off balance</a>. </p>
<p>Allegations that Trump may now be under investigation by an independent special counsel for obstructing justice in the FBI’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, possibly in collusion with the Trump campaign, have put his presidency <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-would-a-real-gop-break-from-trump-look-like/?ex_cid=newsletter-top-stories">in even greater peril</a>. </p>
<p>If his own head of intelligence, and other senior officials of his administration, cannot trust him to keep his word, how can foreign leaders? Whatever Trump says at the G20, has to be discounted in light of this, including concurrence with a final joint statement.</p>
<h2>Referees Matter</h2>
<p>Trump’s mendacity points to a much bigger problem. In an era of big data and contested statistical evidence <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jan/19/crisis-of-statistics-big-data-democracy">how can opinion be informed</a> by agreed facts to achieve consensus at any political level? </p>
<p>He has ridden rough-shod over decades of research findings regarding the human causes of climate change. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175827/original/file-20170627-24817-6fstl4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175827/original/file-20170627-24817-6fstl4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=895&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175827/original/file-20170627-24817-6fstl4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=895&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175827/original/file-20170627-24817-6fstl4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=895&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175827/original/file-20170627-24817-6fstl4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1125&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175827/original/file-20170627-24817-6fstl4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1125&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175827/original/file-20170627-24817-6fstl4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1125&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Donald Trump.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Kevin Lamarque</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To inform and help frame democratic debate, about such scientifically complicated contested topics as climate, public health, national security, and a raft of other vital policy issues, the public used at least rely on professional journalists to arrive at the <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21706498-dishonesty-politics-nothing-new-manner-which-some-politicians-nw-lie-and">best obtainable version of the truth</a>. </p>
<p>This is no longer sufficient. Trump has advanced politically by questioning scientific evidence, those who produce it and dismisses as “fake news” any journalistic reporting he disagrees with. G20 leaders should not be diplomatic in calling attention to this.</p>
<p>And a positive counter-note to Trump’s cavalier claims would be for the G20 leaders to make clear that they believe in evidence based policymaking, as well as the monitoring and evaluation of recommendations. </p>
<h2>Cooperation without America</h2>
<p>The leaders, individually and together, need to show their commitment to unbiased, honest, and rigorously informed judgements on such issues as the design, priorities, and implementation of their new “Compact with Africa.” </p>
<p>Doing so without US backing adds to the challenge, but is also an opportunity for demonstrating cooperation <a href="https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/global-leadership-successor-to-america-by-richard-n--haass-2017-06">without America playing a central role</a>. So long as Trump is US president, this is likely to also be popular in most G20 countries. </p>
<p>A just released Pew global survey of public attitudes in 37 countries (including six in Africa - Senegal, South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, and Ghana) toward the US under Trump shows a 15% drop in positive views of the US (64%-49%) <a href="http://www.pewglobal.org/2017/06/26/u-s-image-suffers-as-publics-around-world-question-trumps-leadership/">since Barack Obama left office</a>. Confidence in the US presidency under Trump, however, fell a stunning 41%. Only in Russia, and Israel is Trump regarded more favourably than Obama.</p>
<p>Far more important that thwarting Trump, however, will be gaining public support for the “Compact with Africa” and the rest of the Hamburg agenda. Justifying these costly and complex commitments in positive ways will be a tougher political challenge; but one perhaps rendered easier without Trump or his representative claiming a seat at the head of the table.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80029/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John J Stremlau receives funding from SAIIA 2017 Bradlow Fellowship.</span></em></p>If the G20 is to remain relevant in the quest for more inclusive and fair global governance, Africa offers an historic opportunity for collective action, despite the absence of the US under Trump.John J Stremlau, 2017 Bradlow Fellow at SA Institute of International Affairs,Visiting Professor of International Relations, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/635742016-08-22T00:21:20Z2016-08-22T00:21:20ZHow racism has shaped welfare policy in America since 1935<p><a href="https://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/rc10_eng.pdf">A recent UNICEF report</a> found that the U.S. ranked 34th on the list of 35 developed countries surveyed on the well-being of children. According to the <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/07/14/black-child-poverty-rate-holds-steady-even-as-other-groups-see-declines/">Pew Institute</a>, children under the age of 18 are the most impoverished age population of Americans, and African-American children are almost four times as likely as white children to be in poverty.</p>
<p>These findings are alarming, not least because they come on the 20th anniversary of President Clinton’s promise to “<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/welfare/stories/wf082396.htm">end welfare as we know it</a>” with his signing into law, on Aug. 23, 1996, <a href="https://www.ssa.gov/history/tally1996.html">the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (P.L. 104-193).</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/21/us/politics/welfare-arizona-bill-hillary-clinton.html?_r=0">It is true that the data show</a> the number of families receiving cash assistance fell from 12.3 million in 1996 to current levels of 4.1 million as <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/21/us/politics/welfare-arizona-bill-hillary-clinton.html?_r=0">reported by The New York Times</a>. But it is also true that child poverty rates for black children remain stubbornly high in the U.S. </p>
<p>My research indicates that this didn’t happen by chance. In a <a href="https://www.naswpress.org/publications/profession/inside/american-social-welfare-state-preface.html">recent book</a>, I examine social welfare policy developments in the U.S. over a 50-year period from the New Deal to the 1996 reforms. Findings reveal that U.S. welfare policies have, from their very inception, been discriminatory. </p>
<h2>Blemished by a history of discrimination</h2>
<p>It was the 1935 Social Security Act, introduced by the Franklin Roosevelt administration, that first committed the U.S. to the <a href="http://www.academia.edu/4424824/Freedom_From_Fear_-_Using_the_Social_Security_Act_to_Rebuild_America_s_Social_Safety_Net">safety net philosophy.</a> </p>
<p>From the beginning, the policy had two tiers that intended to protect families from loss of income. </p>
<p>On one level were the contributory social insurance programs that provided income support to the surviving dependents of workers in the event of their death or incapacitation and Social Security for retired older Americans. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134697/original/image-20160818-12300-jnqzgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134697/original/image-20160818-12300-jnqzgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=741&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134697/original/image-20160818-12300-jnqzgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=741&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134697/original/image-20160818-12300-jnqzgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=741&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134697/original/image-20160818-12300-jnqzgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=931&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134697/original/image-20160818-12300-jnqzgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=931&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134697/original/image-20160818-12300-jnqzgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=931&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal#/media/File:SocialSecurityposter1.gif">Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The second tier was made up of means-tested public assistance programs that included what was originally called the <a href="http://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/public-welfare/aid-to-dependent-children-the-legal-history/">“Aid to Dependent Children”</a> program and was subsequently renamed the <a href="https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v25n10/v25n10p3.pdf">Aid to Families with Dependent Children</a> in the 1962 Public Welfare Amendments to the SSA under the Kennedy administration.</p>
<p>The optimistic vision of the architects of the ADC program was that it would die “a natural death” with the rising quality of life in the country as a whole, resulting in more families becoming eligible for the work-related social insurance programs. </p>
<p>But this scenario was problematic for black Americans because of pervasive <a href="http://socialistworker.org/2012/06/28/blacks-and-the-great-depression">racial discrimination in employment</a> in the decades of the 1930s and 1940s. During these decades, blacks typically worked in menial jobs. Not tied to the formal workforce, they were paid in cash and “off the books,” making them ineligible for social insurance programs that called for contributions through payroll taxes from both employers and employees. </p>
<p>Nor did blacks fare much better under ADC during these years. </p>
<p>The ADC was an extension of the state-operated <a href="http://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/programs/widows-pensions-an-introduction/">mothers’ pension programs</a>, where <a href="http://www.yorku.ca/crsp/issue51/issue51-14.pdf">white widows</a> were the primary beneficiaries. The criteria for eligibility and need were state-determined, so blacks continued to be barred from full participation because the country operated under the <a href="http://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/">“separate but equal”</a> doctrine adopted by the Supreme Court in 1896.</p>
<p>Jim Crow Laws and the separate but equal doctrine resulted in the creation of a two-track service delivery system in both law and custom, one for whites and one for blacks that were anything but equal. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134698/original/image-20160818-12274-1uonazl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134698/original/image-20160818-12274-1uonazl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134698/original/image-20160818-12274-1uonazl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134698/original/image-20160818-12274-1uonazl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134698/original/image-20160818-12274-1uonazl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134698/original/image-20160818-12274-1uonazl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134698/original/image-20160818-12274-1uonazl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A ‘colored’ drinking fountain – segregation applied to welfare benefits too.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%22Colored%22_drinking_fountain_from_mid-20th_century_with_african-american_drinking.jpg">Russell Lee/Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Developments in the 1950s and ‘60’s further disadvantaged black families.</p>
<p>This happened when <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1992/03/09/nyregion/metro-matters-spirit-of-newburgh-past-haunts-political-present.html">states stepped up efforts</a> to <a href="https://people.eou.edu/socwelf/readings/week-2/welfare-expands-in-the-1960s/">reduce ADC enrollment and costs</a>. As I examined in my book, <a href="https://www.naswpress.org/publications/profession/inside/american-social-welfare-state-preface.html">residency requirements were proposed</a> so as to bar blacks migrating from the South to qualify for the program. New York City’s “<a href="https://people.eou.edu/socwelf/readings/week-2/welfare-expands-in-the-1960s/">man in the house rule</a>” required welfare workers to make unannounced visits to determine if fathers were living in the home – if evidence of a male presence was found, cases were closed and welfare checks discontinued. </p>
<h2>Always an unpopular program</h2>
<p>Because of the strong American work ethic, and preference for a “hand up” versus a “hand-out,” the means-tested, cash assistance programs for poor families – and especially ADC renamed AFDC – have never been popular among Americans. As FDR himself said in his 1935 State of the Union address to Congress, “<a href="http://stateoftheunionaddress.org/1935-franklin-d-roosevelt">the government must and shall quit this business of relief.”</a> </p>
<p>As the quality of life did indeed improve for whites, the number of white widows and their children on the AFDC rolls declined. At the same time, the easing of racial discrimination widened eligibility to more blacks, increasing the number of <a href="http://www.aei.org/publication/welfare-reform-and-marriage/">never-married women of color </a> and their children who were born out of wedlock. </p>
<p>One point, however, to note here is that there has always been a <a href="http://www.nap.edu/read/9719/chapter/8">public misconception about race and welfare.</a> It is true that over the years blacks became <a href="http://www.nap.edu/read/9719/chapter/8#153">disproportionately represented.</a> But given that whites constitute <a href="http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-05.pdf">a majority of the population</a>, numerically they have always been the largest users of the AFDC program. </p>
<h2>Holes in the safety net</h2>
<p>The retreat from the safety net philosophy can be dated to the presidencies of <a href="http://www.ontheissues.org/Celeb/Richard_Nixon_Welfare_+_Poverty.htm">Richard Nixon</a> and <a href="http://www.ontheissues.org/Celeb/Ronald_Reagan_Welfare_+_Poverty.htm">Ronald Reagan.</a> </p>
<p>On the one hand, politicians wanted to reduce the cost of welfare. Under Reagan policies of <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/reagan-domestic/">New Federalism,</a> social welfare expenditures <a href="http://www.policyalmanac.org/social_welfare/archive/ssbg.shtml">were capped</a> and responsibility for programs for poor families given back to states.</p>
<p>On the other hand, the demographic shift in the welfare rolls exacerbated the politics around welfare and racialized the debate. </p>
<p>Ronald Reagan’s <a href="http://www.salon.com/2015/09/27/ronald_reagans_welfare_queen_myth_how_the_gipper_kickstarted_the_war_on_the_working_poor/">“Welfare Queen</a>” narrative only reinforced existing white stereotypes about blacks: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“There’s a woman in Chicago. She has 80 names, 30 addressees, 12 Social Security cards and is collecting veterans’ benefits on four nonexistent deceased husbands. She’s got Medicaid, is getting food stamps and welfare under each of her names. Her tax-free cash income alone is over $150,000.”</p>
</blockquote>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/I9pk8FG8LPA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Reagan’s assertions that the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/23/us/reagan-on-homelessness-many-choose-to-live-in-the-streets.html">homeless were living on the streets by choice</a> played to conventional wisdom about the causes of poverty, blamed poor people for their own misfortune and helped disparage government programs to help the poor. </p>
<h2>The 1990s gear change</h2>
<p>By the late 1990s efforts of reforms targeting the AFDC program shifted to more nuanced forms of racism with <a href="http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/1996/06/bg1084nbsp-how-welfare-harms-kids">claims</a> that the program encouraged out-of-wedlock births, irresponsible fatherhood and intergenerational dependency. </p>
<p>The political context for the 1996 reforms, then, was fueled by racist undertones that played into <a href="https://www.press.umich.edu/10015/changing_american_mind">public angst about rising taxes</a> and the national debt that were <a href="http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/11/the-2013-index-of-dependence-on-government">attributed</a> to the high payout of welfare checks to people who were not carrying their own weight. </p>
<p>This emotionally charged environment distorted the poverty debate, and paved the way for a reform bill that many saw as excessively punitive in its harsh treatment of poor families.</p>
<p>Although credited to the Clinton administration, the blueprint for the 1996 welfare reform bill was crafted by a caucus of conservative Republicans led by Newt Gingrich as part of the <a href="http://www.heritage.org/research/lecture/the-contract-with-america-implementing-new-ideas-in-the-us">Contract with America</a> during the 1994 congressional election campaign. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/22/opinion/22clinton.html?_r=0">Twice President Clinton vetoed</a> the welfare reform bill sent to him by the GOP-dominated Congress. The third time he signed, creating much controversy, including the resignation of his own adviser on welfare reform, the leading scholar on poverty <a href="https://www.hks.harvard.edu/about/faculty-staff-directory/david-ellwood">David Ellwood.</a></p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/J6QOuoqeOFQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">President Clinton announces the new welfare bill.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The new bill replaced the AFDC program with <a href="http://www.acf.hhs.gov/ofa/programs/tanf">Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF)</a>. Stricter work requirements required single mothers to find work within two years of receiving benefits. A five-year lifetime limit was imposed for receiving benefits. To reinforce traditional family values, a core principle of the Republican Party, teenage mothers were to be prohibited benefits, and fathers who were delinquent in child support payments were threatened with imprisonment. States were banned from using federally funded TANF for certain groups of immigrants and restrictions were placed on their eligibility to Medicaid, food stamps and Supplementary Social Security Income (SSI).</p>
<h2>The impact</h2>
<p>Despite many bleak predictions, <a href="http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2006/08/welfare-reform-at-10-analyzing-welfare-caseload-fluctuations-1996-2002">favorable outcomes were reported</a> on the 10th anniversary of the bill’s signing. Welfare rolls had declined. Mothers had moved from welfare to work and children had benefited psychologically from having an employed parent.</p>
<p>However, the volume of research generated at the 10-year benchmark has not been matched, in my observation, by that produced in years leading up to the 20-year anniversary. </p>
<p>More research in particular is needed to understand what is happening with families who have left welfare rolls because of passing the five-year lifetime limit for receiving benefits but have not sustained a foothold in an ever-increasing specialized workforce.</p>
<h2>Disentangling intertwined effects of racism and poverty</h2>
<p>U.S. welfare policy is, arguably, as much a reflection of its economic policies as it is of the nation’s troublesome history of racism. </p>
<p>In the words of President Obama, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/23/us/obama-racism-marc-maron-podcast.html">racism is a part of America’s DNA and history.</a> Similarly, the notion that anyone who is willing to work hard can be rich is just as much a part of that DNA. Both have played an equal role in constraining adequate policy development for poor families and have been especially harmful to poor black families. </p>
<p>Racism has left an indelible mark on American institutions. In particular, it influences how we understand the causes of poverty and how we develop solutions for ending it. </p>
<p>Indeed, with the continual unraveling of the safety net, the 20th anniversary of welfare reforms can be an impetus for taking a closer look at how racism has shaped welfare policy in the U.S. and to what extent it accounts for the persistently high poverty rates for black children.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63574/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alma Carten receives no funding from public or private funders</span></em></p>On the 20th anniversary of Bill Clinton’s promise to “end welfare as we know it,” a social work scholar asks why child poverty is still such a problem in the U.S. and what race has to do with it.Alma Carten, Associate Professor of Social Work; McSilver Faculty Fellow, New York UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/558022016-03-11T11:12:48Z2016-03-11T11:12:48ZSupreme Court losing luster in public’s eyes<p>In her iconic rendition of “Proud Mary,” Tina Turner begins with a sultry hiss:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Sometimes we like to do things nice and easy. But we never like to do things completely nice and easy, because sometimes we like to do things nice…and rough!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The same may be said when it comes to analyzing public survey data about the Supreme Court (to strengthen the metaphor, you could envision this law professor at his keyboard in a sequined cocktail dress, but I don’t recommend it).</p>
<p>There are certain “easy” things one can say about the numbers, and I will turn to them first. Then there are deeper implications, which is where the going gets rough, and I will discuss those second. </p>
<p>First, the easy bit.</p>
<h2>Democrats and Republicans take turns yelling</h2>
<p>The Pew Research Center has been conducting surveys on the Supreme Court for over 30 years. Their <a href="http://www.people-press.org/2015/07/29/negative-views-of-supreme-court-at-record-high-driven-by-republican-dissatisfaction/">most recent survey</a> from 2015
shows that 48 percent of the public holds a favorable opinion of the Supreme Court, as compared to 43 percent, who report a negative opinion. </p>
<p>Pew reports a recent decline in public approval, which it attributes to a sharp drop in support from conservatives after the Supreme Court’s decisions in the<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-supreme-court-upholds-same-sex-marriage-expert-reaction-43961"> same-sex marriage</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/experts-react-as-obamacare-survives-another-near-death-experience-43233">Obamacare</a> cases.</p>
<p>But before you conservatives get too hot and bothered, note this: as recently as 2010, the shoe was on the other foot, when declining public support for the Supreme Court was accelerated by liberals, who then viewed the court less favorably than conservatives.</p>
<p>None of this is especially surprising.</p>
<p>First, <a href="http://www.people-press.org/2015/07/29/negative-views-of-supreme-court-at-record-high-driven-by-republican-dissatisfaction/">70 percent</a> of us, according to Pew, think that politics influences the choices justices make. And <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/US/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/american-government-politics-and-policy/supreme-court-and-attitudinal-model-revisited">social science data</a> corroborate the public’s view, by showing a strong correlation between a justice’s ideological predilections and the decisions he or she makes.</p>
<p>Second, 56 percent believe that that the justices “should consider what most Americans think” when they decide cases. </p>
<p>It’s true that canons of judicial ethics direct judges not to be influenced by “public clamor” when deciding cases. And indeed many college-educated folk share this view. </p>
<p>But when a significant segment of the public thinks that the justices make political choices and that the public’s political preferences should influence those choices, it follows that the public will view the court more or less favorably depending on whether the court implements the public’s political preferences.</p>
<p>All of which may have little to do with the legal questions the court is deciding. </p>
<p>For example, whether the public thought favorably of the Supreme Court after its decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act case may have more to do with whether the public liked Obamacare than whether it thought the legislation exceeded Congress’s constitutional authority to regulate commerce or raise taxes. </p>
<p>And so, Republicans and Democrats take turns yelling at the court, depending on whose ox the court has gored lately. </p>
<p>So far, so easy. </p>
<p>But here is where the sledding gets rougher. </p>
<h2>Long-term loss in popular support</h2>
<p>Over the past 30 years, <a href="http://www.people-press.org/2015/07/29/negative-views-of-supreme-court-at-record-high-driven-by-republican-dissatisfaction/">the Pew numbers</a> show that favorable views of the Supreme Court have declined from 64 percent in 1985 to 48 percent in 2015, while unfavorable opinions have increased from 28 percent to 43 percent. </p>
<p>Why? </p>
<p>It’s not as simple as saying that the Supreme Court has gotten too liberal or too conservative, because liberals and conservatives have both contributed to the long, slow decline in popular support for the Supreme Court.</p>
<p>Part of the answer may be that the public is simply fed up with the federal government generally, which includes the Supreme Court for reasons having nothing to do with the court specifically. </p>
<p>But something more is at work here, which has politicized the court in new and different ways. Just check out this <a href="http://media.cagle.com/77/2013/10/22/139124_600.jpg">political cartoon</a> where a tree that has lost its leaves reveals twigs spelling out the faults of each of the government’s three branches. “Incompetence” is the legislative branch’s problem and “secrecy” the executive’s. </p>
<p>And the judiciary’s? “Politics.” But what does that mean?</p>
<h2>The impact of the partisan divide</h2>
<p>It is not just that the court or its justices have acquired an ideological bent – we’ve known that for a long time, and political scientists <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8940.html">Greg Caldeira and James Gibson</a> have shown that the public does not second-guess the court’s legitimacy on that basis. </p>
<p>In a new book, <em><a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/courting-peril-9780190233495?lang=en&cc=us#">Courting Peril: The Political Transformation of the American Judiciary</a>,</em> I argue that a combination of events generations in the making is turning the American judiciary into a <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-do-we-pretend-supreme-court-justices-are-anything-but-political-officials-54941">much more political place</a>, in which the public is increasingly skeptical of judges and their motives. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114336/original/image-20160308-22132-dwzmai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114336/original/image-20160308-22132-dwzmai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114336/original/image-20160308-22132-dwzmai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114336/original/image-20160308-22132-dwzmai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114336/original/image-20160308-22132-dwzmai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1141&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114336/original/image-20160308-22132-dwzmai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1141&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114336/original/image-20160308-22132-dwzmai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1141&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ronald Reagan with Robert Bork in the Oval Office.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Reagan_with_Robert_Bork_1987.jpg">US Government</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This began in earnest in 1987 with the Senate’s rejection of <a href="http://blog.constitutioncenter.org/2015/10/on-this-day-senate-rejects-robert-bork-for-the-supreme-court/">Robert Bork’s nomination</a> to the Supreme Court. It was a nomination process so contentious that it inspired a new verb, “to bork,” defined by the <a href="http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/bork">Oxford English Dictionary</a> as: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>To obstruct (someone, especially a candidate for public office) through systematic defamation or vilification. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The new politics of judicial appointments have transformed judicial selection into an ideological battleground that gets amplified in the public debate. </p>
<p>The traditional media <a href="http://www.academia.edu/5058189/News_Media_Portrayal_of_Ideology_and_Division_among_Supreme_Court_Justices">now explain</a> Supreme Court decisions with reference to the court’s ideological voting blocs; cable news stations such as Fox and CNBC report on the Supreme Court from decidedly partisan perspectives; while a new breed of <a href="http://www.frc.org/">citizen journalists</a> offer a critique of the courts in a host of online venues that are unconstrained by the norms of traditional journalism. </p>
<p>At the same time, legislative oversight of such seemingly benign subjects as court practice, procedure, structure, jurisdiction and budgets have become more and more politically charged. For example, with the court’s ruling on Obamacare impending, ideologically aligned interest groups <a href="http://www.pressreader.com/usa/houston-chronicle-sunday/20111204/294385649961513/TextView">clamored</a>
for the disqualification of both Justices Kagan and Thomas. </p>
<p>The public’s confidence in the courts does not turn on pretending that sterile interpretations of “law” are all that matter to justices or that ideology plays no part in the choices justices make.</p>
<p>But the public does expect judges to be fair and to take law seriously. When people start to think that judges are nothing more than political hacks in robes, trouble follows. </p>
<p>It’s not surprising, therefore, that <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8940.html">Caldeira and Gibson</a> have found that the court’s legitimacy suffers when Supreme Court appointments proceedings devolve into partisan warfare, in which each side accuses the other of appointing ideological extremists. This creates the perception that the judiciary is peopled with zealots who are indifferent to law and justice. </p>
<p>I don’t mean to suggest that the court itself shouldn’t bear some of the responsibility for declining public support. But it is hard for the public to feel good about its Supreme Court in a partisan climate this polarized. </p>
<p>After Justice Scalia’s death, for example, the <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/23/politics/joe-biden-supreme-court-senate-republicans/">Senate preemptively declared </a>the president’s nominee unfit to serve before he or she was even named, on the assumption that working together to find an honorable, politically acceptable replacement was impossible. </p>
<p>Lost in this partisan fecal fest is an important truth: capable, qualified and honorable judges are not unicorns. They exist – and they are no less capable, qualified and honorable, simply because they do not always agree with each other, with us, or with the politicians who appointed them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/55802/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles Gardner Geyh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What public opinion surveys reveal about changing attitudes toward the Supreme Court.Charles Gardner Geyh, John F. Kimberling Professor of Law, Indiana UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.