Political Scientist Tries to Explain Rising Political Polarization

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This article explains rising political polarization in terms of income security. Voters who are insecure will favor the Democratic party because it is associated with income redistribution. More secure voters will favor the party that opposes income redistribution. The number of independent voters will decline as the degree of security or insecurity drives them to one of the two major parties.

I find this explanation rather weak. Many Democrats and Republicans have income security but they favor income redistribution because of the social values that they hold. Moreover, many insecure voters favor the GOP because of the values that it espouses. Forty percent of the GOP base consists of evangelical Christians. Many of whom are also in the Tea Party, and most of them do not have income security. They oppose redistribution because they don't want government benefits to go to minority groups that they do not identify with, and they have aligned themselves with the political party that pushes state's rights in opposition to liberal policies that they associate with Washington.

Changes in technology have also encouraged polarization in my view. The development of cable television has led to programming that targets viewers according to their value systems and political beliefs. This was less apparent when the news was broadcast by only 3 major networks which had an incentive to reach the widest possible audience. The Internet has also made it easier for groups to organize themselves and to communicate with each other in accordance with their value systems.
There is little cross communication between groups as they come to rely on the information circulated withing their social communities.