For many people, including myself, the extremism of the political landscape in our country has become nauseating. As we have seen through recent outbreaks at campaign events across the country, Americans are literally at a point where the favored solution to the problem is rapidly becoming to punch someone in the face. It’s reaching levels above anything the nation has seen in its recent history. But this isn’t just some accident or freak phenomenon caused by international turmoil or men like Donald Trump coming onto the political stage. It is the culmination of over a decade of relentless partisanship.
With all the divides in the country right now, from religion to race to class and even gender, it seems senseless to incite any more fragmentation in our society. Yet there is. This fragmentation is created by the political divide between Democrats and Republicans. It is a problem which, in many ways, is a root cause of all the rest because it has stopped us from being able to take even the simplest steps to address and mend these other divides. It's impossible to fathom the polarization of the U.S and how it has been perpetuated in all forms.
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When flipping through opposing news stations, the views are so warped it can feel like you are living in two different countries depending on who is speaking. People may assume this is just how politics is, but for those who have grown up watching this unfold, it's obvious that the issue has turned identifiably worse. In 2014, the Pew Research Center did a study looking at data from 1994 until 2014 and found that the political opinions of the average Democrat and Republican have been shifting apart, creating a rapidly growing gap between the two groups. The study also found that increasingly more people view the other party as a threat to the nation.
The problem with this political divergence is that, just like any other divide, stereotypes and assumptions have developed around it, which threaten to consume us in hatred of one another.
In the eyes of Republican media groups, the Democrats are freeloaders who are attacking the rights of Americans, who don’t accept even the most basic American values, and who are ignorantly led by a 'Kenyan-born Islamic terrorist', or something equally as outrageous.
On the other hand, Democrats view Republicans as ignorant, elite racists and xenophobes, who are completely out of touch and couldn't care less about the opinions of anyone who is not a white male, or someone with money and power.
Both views are lightyears away from the truth for most Americans, yet these portrayals have been stuffed down our throats and gradually treated as known facts. These sentiments that are being yelled at us through the T.V screen, radio, and countless other mediums are causing a chain reaction of social strife throughout our country. This phenomenon has many Americans thoroughly convinced that half of their country is trying to destroy the U.S and all it stands for.
What scares me the most is that we buy into it and watch as large-scale media and major leaders refuse to do anything but perpetuate the problem. I don’t wish to bash any one candidate, but I must admit I was deeply concerned several months ago during the first Democratic debate on CNN. When given a chance to address what enemy it is she is most proud of, Hillary Clinton listed several groups and ended her list with the primary enemy being, “Probably the Republicans.” This is disturbing. It puts an entire party in direct contradiction to the people they are supposed to be working with.
The same goes for the Republican leaders and rightist media who have continually tried to paint President Barack Obama, and anyone who attempts to work with him, as nothing short of pure evil. Rather than working in the political field to try and hash out a solution, the two parties have entrenched themselves deep in their own views, pulling as many citizens into their side of the pit as they can, and now they are only focused on hurling all they have at one another to see who will break first.
In the U.S. whenever we are faced with a problem, we have always had two main options: we can work to resolve the problem, however painful and controversial it may be, or we can redirect the problem onto a group. Democrats and Republicans are doing the latter, using each other as scapegoats for all our country's deepest issues. In this political match that leads to government shutdowns, gridlock, and a do-nothing Congress, the real losers become the American people.
Too many individuals across the system are refusing to practice the basic idea of compromise, and instead we allow media outlets to practice partisanship that bullies Americans to accept their opinions through fear-mongering and ignoring the truth.
If you begin a discussion with your mind already made up, then nothing will get resolved.
If we refuse to acknowledge the views of anyone but the like-minded, it leads to ignorance and misunderstanding of other's opinions, and it is a tragic human tendency to fear what we don’t understand, and this fear, far too often, turns into hate. We could say this current political situation is something unique, part of a Trump effect, but that would be too easy and would be falling into the same scapegoat tactics to solving problems that Trump himself has been widely criticized for in these past months.
Overall it's good to see so much passion appearing in our country for what matters, but when that passion turns into hatred and prejudice of the “other,” then it's time to rethink our strategy. We cannot solve a problem with the same thinking that got us into it. And we as Americans must be willing to unite with each other, as opposed to unite against each other.
If we want to be a land of the people, and for the people, then we have to work out a strategy that includes everyone, no matter what side of the political spectrum they fall under, or what race they are, or what mindset they claim.
Many of the serious issues facing America could be resolved faster if we all took a second to push back against the stereotypes, and propaganda. We ought to try to understand why the 'other side' thinks the way it does, instead of assuming that they must all be ignorant, or in some way evil, stupid, un-American or wrong. Change will start when we realize that before we are Democrats and Republicans, we are all still Americans.
