Chasm widens between Republicans, Democrats

WASHINGTON (AFP) — In Washington these days, there are facts, alternative facts and disputed facts.

It also seems like there are Democratic facts and Republican facts.

The acrimonious impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump have put the spotlight on the stark partisan split in the nation’s capital over where the truth lies.

“There’s always been a divide between liberals and conservatives in the United States over opinions,” said Richard Hasen, a professor of law and political science at University of California, Irvine.

“Where things have changed is that there’s now much more disagreement along party lines as to basic facts.”

Democrats and Republicans tend to diverge on more and more subjects including, for example, whether climate change is real and whether Russia or Ukraine interfered with the 2016 US presidential election.

“On each of these things polling shows a divide between Republicans and Democrats as to what the state of the world is,” said Hasen, author of “Election Meltdown: Dirty Tricks, Distrust and the Threat to American Democracy.”

“That’s why some of us think of this as kind of a post-truth era.”

Trump rose to political prominence by peddling the lie that former president Barack Obama was born in Kenya and Democrats accuse the Republican leader of turbocharging the polarized environment with fabrications.

The Washington Post maintains a Fact Checker database of “false or misleading claims” made by Trump since taking office. It was last updated on 9 October at which time it listed 13,435 examples.