Political Polarization

This country has become polarized politically. People's votes are becoming based more on political parties than anything else. Politicians use the politics of fear mongering through the usage of divisive rhetoric; the ills of society are often, “their” entire fault.

There are many reasons for this problem, including stereotypes, indifference, and ignorance, which result in yet other problems, totaling in a divisive situation. Republican conservatives are stereotyped as big business sustaining, gun toting, anti-environment, privacy removing, anti-abortion, Christian war hawks; democrat liberals are stereotyped as environment-obsessed, tax hiking, gay marriage supporting, anti-religious doves.

Unfortunately, for all involved, these stereotypes are often applied before getting to know the person. The majority of the populace is too indifferent about the future of the government and the society to vote, leaving approximately half the country to vote. Among the remaining voters are those who vote based on extremist parties, therefore dividing our country. Then, there is the problem of ignorance. Most people derive their political news from a few biased sources, generally all biased in the same belief, such as cable news, internet and newspapers (democrat bias) and internet, Fox News, and talk radio (republican bias). Each form of media is driving the country into further poles ideologically with their own extremist viewpoints. Therefore, with essentially only one source, they vote with what they have been brainwashed into, without looking into the opposition’s arguments.

We must curb this political polarization while we still can, and yet, how can we, a small group of people, accomplish this task ourselves? We must be open-minded; surround yourselves with ideologically diverse viewpoints. It does not matter if you disagree, it gives you the opportunity to have your opinion challenged, allowing you to change it if you are wrong, or refine it if you were only a little off course. No one is perfect, we all make mistakes in our lives, consequently, have the courage to admit when you are wrong. In order to increase the voting population, we must use social pressure; do not treat non-voter’s arguments with the respect of reply, do not invite them to social events you are hosting. Perhaps we should add extra incentive and punishment to voting; nothing draconian, but if you do not vote at least twice in a 6 year span you lose your voting right and are not eligible for tax cuts. Remember folks, freedom is not free and voting should be a duty while living in a republic. In addition, the stereotypes need to be challenged, especially the one regarding moderates as indecisive fence sitters. Finally, as writers, we must continue to write in order to bring about respectful, ideologically diverse, moderate, political discourse. These above changes will bring us to a more level headed, moderate opinion where we can have open discourse without the ignorant stereotypes.


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