One of the all-time great lines in cinema history.

FiveThirtyEight out with an excellent piece on how the political party is now the defining divide in America, and how each misperceive the other.   That is how wars start!

The defining divide in American politics is probably between Republicans and Democrats. It encapsulates all our other divides — by race, education, religion and more — and it’s growing.

This partisan divide is such a big part of people’s political identities, in fact, that it’s reinforced simply by “negative partisanship,” or loyalty to a party because you don’t like the other party. A Pew Research Center poll from last year found that about 40 percent of both Democrats and Republicans belong to their party because they oppose the other party’s values, rather than because they are particularly aligned with their own party.  – FiveThirtyEight

The stereotyping and misperception in both parties of the “other” party are stunning.

Here’s the data.

Isn’t it interesting all these misperceptions disappear and the divisions vanish during times of tragedy?   During a natural disaster, for example, you don’t see Republicans only helping Republicans or Democrats rushing in only to serve Democrats?

Here’s to hoping we can  find that same spirit without a natural or national disaster.

E pluribus unum, baby!