[LINK] "Obama's Denali Divide"

[rfmcdonald]

Jonathan Bernstein at Bloomberg View takes a look at the controversy surrounding the restoration of Denali as the name of the highest peak in Alaska.

For decades, this has been a low-profile dispute pitting Ohio Republicans (who have been loyal to the assassinated president from the Buckeye State) against Alaskans of all political stripes -- most of them Republicans -- who used the older name. No less a partisan conservative than Sarah Palin has referred to “nature's finest show -- Denali, the great one, soaring under the midnight sun.”

But as soon as Obama became involved, many Republicans from the lower 48 who probably couldn't tell you what state the mountain was in last week started protesting against the gross abuse of power intended to erase white people from U.S. history.

One of the stronger findings about the presidency from political scientists is that when presidents associate themselves with an issue, voters -- Democrats and Republicans -- tend to line up strongly for and against it based on party loyalty. This isn't just about Obama; the same thing happened on small and big things alike when George W. Bush and Bill Clinton were presidents. (Democrats turned against a mission to Mars when Bush proposed one, for example.)

[. . . W]hen all that’s needed is to win over members of his own party, presidential speeches that polarize can be extremely helpful. This was true during Obama’s first two years in office, when Democrats had majorities in the House and Senate. It has also been the case recently with the Iran deal: Obama may have deliberately chosen a partisan path to ensure that Democrats in the House and Senate stayed on board.