Slowly Mending Americas Political Divide

the united states is now more divided

than it has been at any point in

american history

including the civil war if it feels to

you as though this political split has

been growing constantly

that’s because it has political parties

and their increasing tensions have

created a polarizing atmosphere across

american households where

family discussions turn into heated

debates

the polarization that has been

highlighted in recent years stemmed from

the product of our history

the election of president trump may have

called attention to accentuate this

divide but he is ultimately not the

reason it started democratic and

republican speakers cater to their sides

and pit themselves against each other in

races constantly

america has always been and continues to

be divided at its core

dissatisfaction of the government has

created a striking polarity that we need

to mend through monitoring our own media

consumption

education on history politics and

current events

and limiting as much biased language as

we can in our own discussions

when running campaigns against each

other political opponents quickly turn

into adversaries

or enemies we saw this heat up in the

2016 election with hillary clinton and

donald trump

political parties need to get money so

candidates gear away from people who

tend to be in the center of ideology and

gravitate towards radicals to increase

their donations

ultimately boosting their campaign

additionally

tight elections lead to bigger more

toxic campaigns

you could likely remember that many

young voters and adults alike and even

kids since most of us wear middle school

didn’t like trump or clinton as their

first choice but justified voting for

one over the other

as though they were the lesser of two

evils in a democratic competition

against two adversaries each one acted

as though the other was a threat to the

country’s survival

and voters ended up seeing things this

way as well this set the national tone

for the next four years

americans on both sides of the spectrum

expressed great dissatisfaction in the

two-party system

the general public continues to show a

split from parties

an increasing number of people registers

independents each election cycle

two things that we have to separate are

the political sides in supporting a

politician

republicans and democrats can’t be tied

down to a single president or officer

there are plenty of self-proclaimed

independents that devotedly support

trump

and plenty of republicans who voted for

biden in the 2020 election

more importantly parties and ideologies

are not the same thing

using the terms democrat and liberal

interchangeably may not seem to pose any

issues

but it meshes together two separate

entities parties are designed to place

candidates in office and are influenced

by a population’s changing ideologies in

order to gain their support and boost

their campaigns

in order to understand the deeper

portion of where our political divide

comes from

we need to look beyond the two-party

system game and into some political

ideologies

let’s delve into the basics of

everyone’s favorites liberalism and

conservatism

but before we do that i want you to

picture a liberal

when we think of a liberal we might

think of a younger voter someone in a

minority group or even a teenage girl

with blue hair

now i want you to picture a conservative

when we think of conservatives we might

think of huge uber religious white

families that live in the middle of

nowhere

or teenage boys sporting camouflage and

a blue lives matter flag in their rooms

let’s take these stereotypes a step

further though and look into what people

really believe

according to the tv show real time with

bill meyer republicans think the third

of all democrats are lgbtq plus

and democrats think that 44 percent of

republicans make over two hundred fifty

thousand dollars a year

the percentage of both these

demographics are much lower than they’re

perceived to be

around six percent of democrats claim to

be a member of the lgbtq community

and according to some websites only two

percent of republicans

actually make over two hundred fifty

thousand dollars a year

conservatism has now been associated

with being american and liberalism with

hating america

despite how american either of these

parties are we split ourselves as if the

other one is foreign

conservatives and liberals simply have

two different visions of america

and they tend to love their distinct one

while subsequently hating the other

when looking at the definitions of these

ideologies

they’re just sets of beliefs that don’t

imply any danger

conservatism is often defined as a

philosophy that promotes traditional

social institutions

and liberalism is a philosophy based on

liberty consent of the governed

and equality before the law american

liberals can often be seen as

open-minded

taking stances against racism homophobia

or other injustices

but ideology is a spectrum and there are

plenty of people who would fight against

that claim and rant on about the

intolerant left

the main difference between these two

ideologies is that the liberal ideology

in america focuses more on how to

protect

others and the conservative ideology in

america focuses more on how to protect

ourselves

both of these factors are incredibly

important when it comes to voting and

making decisions

liberals want a better america or one

that consists of less systemic racism

and economic barriers

conservatives also want a better america

one that preaches independence

hard work and pride in one’s nationality

ideology is a spectrum leaning towards

one side and radicalism are two vastly

different things

with all that being said how do we begin

to untangle this mess

let’s start from the roots of our

problem media and education

our environments teach us what to think

rather than how to think

given the amount of opinions that

surround all of us on a day-to-day basis

it’s inherently difficult to decipher if

we draw our political conclusions

ourselves

or if they’re ingrained into our heads

by the content we consume

the most notable factor that exacerbates

this polarization is the media

infographics tweets and even news

sources are filled with so much

bias that they lead us all to following

propaganda whether we realize it or not

donald trump was the first president to

create such an ever-present image of

himself on social media while in office

which has driven today’s media politics

through the roof

to comprehend the effect of media a

little bit more let’s talk about social

media

applications and sites such as instagram

facebook and even tick tock function off

of what is called a positive feedback

loop

this is basically a system where an a

creates a b and that b

creates more of that a for instance when

someone creates a post with a goal to

raise or validate a certain opinion

this ends up creating more posts with

the same purpose

this creates echo chambers when social

media algorithms push users deep into

content that they align with that’s not

designed to reach a stopping point

it’s a little hack into human psychology

driving us all to seek social validation

in addition many social media sites have

been called out for leaving false

information unchecked like 4chan

this is dangerous if people are led to

believe things that aren’t true but a

positive feedback loop is involved

then there’s no stopping a train that’s

already gone off the rails

our worst perceptions of the other side

become uncontested

and the spiral into tribalism within

united states politics only grows deeper

that’s what we saw at the united states

capital on january 6

2021. hundreds of thousands of americans

were led to believe that the 2020

election was fraudulent

and that mike pence could possibly

change the results of the election and

allow former president donald trump to

remain in charge

the influence that the media carries is

real and cannot be ignored

how can we get rid of polarization

though if it’s deeply embedded into what

we consume

while the first amendment is arguably

one of the most american qualities

within our country americans don’t share

the same science platform

news outlets such as fox that don’t have

to be fact checked can go on as

far as our crazy relatives during family

reunions but have the power to influence

millions of people across the country

this allows freedom of thought and facts

to become entangled

while the first amendment needs to be

protected it inevitably allows for

misinformation and hate speech

however just because an individual or

group can spew hate or lies that doesn’t

mean that their words will go without

consequences

depending on where you live the in the

image and media

pushed out by political agendas have

striking effects

when i visited lake county a few months

ago i saw ads on television with

scare tactics to the population about

joe biden raising

taxes if he were to be the president the

ad demonized him in a way by morphing

his image into a leader planning to take

from the poor

not actually explaining his tax

proposals or who they would affect

in low income areas just stating that a

presidential candidate would raise taxes

can be enough to get residents voting

for and even advocating for the other

side we all believe that we are smarter

and more politically aware

than any previous generation but we need

to look deeper into how much we’re

actually thinking on our own

i don’t know about you but whenever

someone on the internet preaches that

our political education is our own

accord and must not be restricted to

social media

i don’t usually know where to start it

often seems that

that opinion has overtaken fact and even

the most reliable news sources and a

trustworthy one is harder to come across

than ever before

solving the growing crisis of media in

the information age is a large issue to

tackle

but we can all contribute with our

individual actions the next time you

pick up your phone and scroll through

social media

ask yourself if the information you’re

coming across is verifiable

if you catch yourself falling down a

hole of social feedback instead of

useful information and aren’t gaining

anything from what you’re consuming

switch to a new source hit unfollow or

do some reading of your own

here’s something i don’t want any of you

to forget though the social media realm

deals in rhetoric

and not policy education is the keystone

piece of mending political divide

so keep yourself full with facts before

falling into opinions

since another one of the factors to

mending this divide as education we need

our school systems to educate students

on accurate american history along with

current events

as you’re all very familiar with history

is one of the biggest subjects that we

study throughout our years as students

understanding history the context it of

our democracy

is essential to keeping up civic

participation in the future

history shows us patterns of the past

and serves as a reminder that it’s our

job to break the cycle of history

if we want a better world today we all

know that america is not a country

without its own faults

learning about the mistakes of the past

from colonization to internment camps in

the 1940s reflect the

horrific events of our history but

acting as though they never happened

erases what the american experience was

for millions of people

over hundreds of years reflecting on the

scary parts of our past makes us

stronger

and demonstrates how we can make our

country and even community more

inclusive today

what people are taught in school becomes

their influence ignoring

ignoring the events of the past could

instill the notion that our country is

perfect or could go as far as glorifying

colonization and imperialism

like some of our european history

textbooks still do

understanding the country in an honest

way gives students a real interpretation

of where we are now

and ultimately leads to more informed

voters and citizens

this makes studying where we are today

of high importance teaching facts first

is what helps students draw their own

opinions rather than someone else’s

teaching the effects of different

policies and allowing

students to debate on them from an

objective standpoint allows them to be

better informed decision makers

when students come home from school or

online school

they bring what they learn to the dinner

table many of us may feel the need to

educate our family members on what we

know about politics or social justice

and having those conversations can be

difficult

when dinner discussions turn into heated

arguments

we can take specific points of ideas and

put them at the front of the line

when it comes to an argument other

parties at the table can only look for

the most extreme

leaving out the other reasonable beliefs

and propositions held and contested by

moderates in each party

people ignorant doesn’t change anyone’s

mind the problem with getting rid of

bias or polarization

is that you can’t get all of it to truly

go away

what we are taught to believe when we

are young shapes our worldview

opinions and how we view others how can

we return to these civil discussions

though

when race and human rights are up for

debate politics become

more difficult when they’re increasingly

about the people or demographics

this blends policies and human rights

which in many cases do go hand in hand

making it difficult to always find the

right things to say

to avoid polarization in speech we have

to make our language softer and allow

for nuance

when talking about your own feelings or

venturing into territory that feels a

little unknown or maybe even false

try to redirect your own claim or

someone else’s with passive claims or

phrases like it’s possible that or it

might be

instead of sticking with it is and

throwing your fist down on the table

these subtle changes in how we talk to

each other shape our arguments into

discussions that can be much less

divisive

as bad as it sounds when attempting to

break down someone’s biased or bigoted

beliefs

it’s still best to use passive language

because that’s what really gets through

to them

if they can’t answer your questions they

might they most likely haven’t been

thinking on their own

and may not even know what they’re

talking about forgetting the nuance in

situations endangered

is dangerous and that’s the game that

these two sides on the american

political spectrum will naturally

continue to play

try not to fall victim to that and see

the subjectiveness in both sides of any

argument

debate or better yet conversation

when talking about america as its status

of a form of democracy

it’s now impossible to have this

discussion without including details of

the 2020 election

after president joe biden was called to

surpass 270 electoral votes

donald trump and some of his

administration continued to

push baseless claims of voter fraud and

asked for recounts in states that turned

blue by surprise

like georgia and michigan the department

of homeland security

stated that the 2020 election was one of

the most secure in our history

even the conflict of his family became

public with certain members telling him

to stand his ground while others told

him to concede

joe biden’s campaign has preached unity

over division as one of its core values

uniting democrats and moderate

republicans alike

now that he is the president of the

united states how much can he make this

claim hold up

and more importantly how much can the

rest of us make this claim hold up

in order to solve these problems we have

to consider the importance of civic

participation as an american value

this country may not be as divided as

the media makes it seem

while large-scale systemic change is

necessary to create progression

individual contributions are arguably

just as important

the next time you come across

politically charged content which is

likely going to be very soon

i want you to keep the following things

in mind now is not the time to give up

on politics

we cannot continue to idolize

politicians

one officer cannot fix all of our

problems

and being involved in creating positive

change and inspiring a good natured way

of american thinking

is up to the body of the citizens a free

america should allow for freedom of

thought the left should not be about

hating the right

and the right should not be about hating

the left it’s important for us all to

fight for what we truly believe in

not what we are being told and to fight

for these values

and beliefs in an educated way with an

understanding of both sides

we are born with reason let’s not throw

that away

you