House divided? How many families disagree politically...
Bottom Line: Fresh off of the Thanksgiving weekend when FOP (fear of politics) is widely discussed, I was curious to find out how many families are really houses divided (so to speak). In thinking about my own large, I’m the youngest of five and we’re all married, immediate family there’s not really any political dissention. Sure, we differ a bit on specific issues but generally there’s more common ground than not. Even when extended family is included during our holiday get togethers, it’s generally family that’s on the same page politically. It got me to thinking about whether we’re more inclined to identify with and gravitate toward family we find the most common ground with politically.... That’s for another day. As for the research, Pew Research happened to study this in the not-so-distant past and found that most families are on the same page politically.
On the question of whether your family shares your political views:
- 42%: Most
- 26%: A few
- 22%: Almost everyone
- 9%: Almost no one
64%, or nearly two-thirds, of families are pretty much on the same page politically while fewer than 10% go off in a completely different direction in general. As it turns out only about a third of people are likely a bit uncomfortable when politics come up when the family gets together but then again – it only takes one and every family seems to have one – don't they?