polarized electorate
Split political population
A polarized electorate is a voting population divided into sharply opposed camps with little middle ground.
The metaphor comes from magnetic poles—opposite ends that repel each other.
In a polarized electorate, voters cluster at ideological extremes, compromise becomes difficult, and elections turn into winner-take-all contests: The polarized electorate has made swing voters nearly extinct.
- dividedSeparated into portions
- partisanBiased toward one side
- splitSeparation into parts
- party linesOfficial political positions
- gridlockComplete mutual obstruction
tribalism · political tribalism · red · red state · blue · blue state · swing · swing state · battleground · factions · extremes · wedge · rhetoric · echo chamber · cable news · camps · hostile · entrenched
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