For the first time since at least 1992, majorities of both Democrats and Republicans have "very" unfavorable views of the opposite party – and sizable shares say the opposing party stirs feelings of frustration, fear and anger.
The Pew Research study also finds 55 percent of Democrats say the Republican Party makes them "afraid;" 49 percent of Republicans say the same about the Democratic Party.
According to the study, 91 percent of Republicans view the Democratic Party unfavorably, with 58 percent holding "very unfavorable" attitudes toward it.
Among Democrats, 86 percent view the Republican Party unfavorably, while 55 percent hold it in a very unfavorable light.
Also, 44 percent of both Republicans and Democrats say they "almost never" agree with the other party’s positions.
"It’s really this intensity of negativity that’s increased," Carroll Doherty, director of political research for Pew and one of the report’s authors, tells
the New York Times.
For example, the study finds, when asked to rate several groups on a 0-100 "thermometer" – where 0 is the coldest, most negative rating and 100 represents the warmest, most positive rating – Democrats give Republicans a mean rating of 31, lower than the average ratings for five other groups on the thermometer, including military personnel and elected officials.
Republicans give Democrats a mean rating of 29; only elected officiala, with a mean rating of 30, and atheists, with 36, are nearly as low.
Democrats’ thermometer ratings of Donald Trump and Republicans’ ratings of Hillary Clinton are even lower, the survey finds.
The average rating for Trump among Democrats is 11 on the 0-100 scale. Fully 82 percent of Democrats give Trump less than 25), including 68 percent who give him a zero.
Clinton gets an average rating of 12 among Republicans. Among the 76 percent of Republicans who give Clinton a less-than 25 rating, 59 percent rate her at zero.
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