A Country Divided: Democrats and Republicans Split on How the Federal Government is Handling the Crisis
Jose Nino
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It’s no secret that the Wuhan Virus has had a disproportionate impact on certain parts of the country, while other parts have largely remained unaffected.
A recent Yahoo News report recognized that, in which it noted that “Urban areas, such as New York City, have been harder hit than rural locales and that difference in impacts follows some of the deep partisan political splits in the country.”
There is a clear divide between Democrats and Republicans on the issue of the Wuhan Virus.
So far, there are over 258,000 Wuhan Virus cases according to John Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center.
Interestingly, the Yahoo piece noted that “About 77 percent of those confirmed cases were in the 490 counties that voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016. And the overwhelming majority of those Clinton counties, 81 percent, had at least one case.”
On the other hand, “there were more than 2,600 counties that voted for President Trump in 2016, but they hold only 19 percent of the cases. On the whole, only 50 percent of those Trump counties have a single case.”
Particularly revealing are the differing opinions on how members of both parties believe the government should be handling the Wuhan Virus:
More than 65 percent of Democrats believe the federal government is not doing enough to protect life in the outbreak, while only 24 percent of Republicans believe that. And even on the economy, a major concern of the White House, 52 percent of Democrats think the federal government has done too little to blunt the impacts of the coronavirus, while only 40 percent of Republicans believe that.
There is clear polarization in America.
The Wuhan Virus split we see here is similar to the divisions on policy questions such as gun rights and abortion.
As American becomes more politicized on cultural issues, this partisan gulf will only widen.
This does not bode well for American political stability in the long-term.
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