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
- 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