Political Polarization Gone Wild In America Summary

Some of the most debated topics in America are based on politics. Everyone from homemakers to astronauts have their personal opinions of how the country should be governed. With so many political opinions and so little facts being used in decision making in our government, most of the pressing issues seem to be increasingly growing. There is very little consensus in our country today, hence bipartisanship being a hot topic among politicians. In my opinion, politicians act off of ego fighting to protect the political party with which they are associated. Often the common good of America is an afterthought when addressing issues in the country. People allow many factors to get in the way of everyday living

Sometimes this takes the form of wooing legislators, including legislators of another political party or ideological persuasion. When polarization and partisanship make such wooing hard if not impossible, that same ambition is likely to take the form of aiding the election of candidates who can be counted on to support one's

The English Civil War in the 1600’s was fought between two parties in the government, the Tories and the Whigs, that either supported the king or disapproved of him. This violent show of political partisanship may have warned the Founding Fathers that political parties had the power to divide governments and lead to tyranny. Aside from the possibility of leading to a violent power struggle, political parties have the potential to draw away politicians’ loyalty from the American population as a whole to the benefit of their political group. Thomas Jefferson wrote that he never wanted to adhere to a group when he was capable of thinking on his own. He called submitting a whole opinion to a party, “the last degradation for a free and moral agent.” (Hatzenbuehler 32) Arduous bipartisanship also leads to a stalemate in Congress. According to a study by the Brookings Institute, in Congress seventy-five percent of salient issues in 2014 were in gridlock. (Binder 2016) Attitudes become increasingly sharp in politics as the political sides compete, each trying to prove the other a radical. If there were no political parties every member would most likely treat their fellow members with civility in the hopes that they would choose to support mutual

Over the past three decades, the distance between parties has continued to grow steadily. As their distances increase it has become harder for presidents to receive votes from both parties.

The political climate today is increasingly becoming more turbulent as Republicans and Democrats volley for superiority in Washington. The two parties are becoming more polarized by the hour, and this is affecting the ability of the government to move forward and pass legislation and continue to improve America. The Senate is in a state of gridlock on some of the most important issues to the people of the United States to date, and yet the senators which the people elected are instead caught up in fighting the people on the other side of the aisle. They should be listening to what their constituents need and want. Today Republican senators are using filibusters, scare tactics, and even entire news networks

All 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives were up for reelection in 2010. In the 2010 U.S. House election, the average amount spent by Super PACs in 87 districts was $242,580; see Table 1 and Figure 1 for average spending by outside entities and challengers. The maximum about Super PACs spent was $912,503 in Colorado’s Fourth Congressional District, where Cory Gardner (R) defeated incumbent Betsy Markey (D). The average independent expenditures by political parties in 94 districts was $1,238,897. The maximum outside party spending was $4,289,706 in Michigan’s Seventh Congressional District, where Tim Walberg (R) beat incumbent Mark Schauer (D). The average challenger spending was $704,692 in 366 districts. Figures 2, shows the

Further, members of Congress are likely to represent states and districts whose populations fall solidly on one side of these divides (racial, cultural, and ideological). This divides Congress along partisan lines as members represents narrow interests and face few electoral repercussions for doing so. In contrast, the president represents the entire nation. This can lead to conflict between Congress and the President (Thurber, 2013). Also, Congress and the Presidency are not controlled by the same party representing the same partisan interests, this can lead to conflict and an inability to to come to agreement over public policy. This can also cause issues for the implementation of already passed

In Chapter eight it is discussed that the 2004 election was based on the leadership role of George W. Bush and not the moral values that people believe made him president again. In chapter nine it shows that the polarization of partisan elites can give the appearance that many voters are shifting emphasis from economics to religion and morality, even while voter preferences stay completely stable. In the last chapter Fiorina discusses how extreme voices have come to dominate American political discourse. Overall I believe that it just depends who you ask about it, if they believe if Americans are polarized or not because all Americans can only choose between the alternatives offered by the

There are many theories as to how or why political polarization was formed, and the impact it has on government in modern day. Polarization has varied significantly over the years ever since the 1970’s. However, what is the true cause and can it be explained? This paper will discuss some theories on how political polarization came about, and analyzes some accounts of polarization overall. Defining political polarization is vital into developing an understanding of how or why it was initially formed.

POLARIZATION OVERVIEW: Polarization occurs when members of both political parties consistently vote along ideological lines. Ideological differences in Congress today are quite staggering. Congressmen have increasingly been moving away from moderate stances and adhering more to party ideologies. The issue with polarization arises when there are two incredibly differing ideologies where both sides feel so strongly about their view that compromise is unfeasible. Some Congressmen able to adhere to a coherent personal ideological beliefs, but there is a growing number of Congressmen that vote based on the party issue positions or on how their

In the book, Culture War by Morris Fiorina, his political stance on Americans not being polarized has not been caused by a growing significance of the political parties today, rather a change in the government over the years. He believes that the two parties, Democrat, and Republican are the most polarized while the public is not. Abramowitz argues that there is no polarized relationship between the American people and the political parties. He believes the polarization is reflected through those who are politically informed and those who are not. While recognizing both of these views, Fiorina and Abramowitz will give us background knowledge on why America is or not polarized and what are the misconceptions that shape that further

The impact of negative partisanship in the polarized era mirrors the races in Congress. In the 20th century, voters tended to elect members of Congress based on their personal qualities. In today’s polarized

Thus, removing the two party system is not a solution to this problem, however it is likely not an impacting factor to the polarization. Rather, the decisive factor here is what many call the “information age” we live in. With ever growing amounts of data bases, blogging sites, news sources, and social media, people have begun to pick and choose exactly what they wish to hear. Suddenly it’s possible to read an article or opinionated paper on a topic with no counter argument to balance it. As President Obama put it in an recent interview, our media is so splintered, ”they almost occupy two different realities in how they see the world.” Thus as people follow one news source, we come to find america a country that lives in two distinct party views, two distinct realities. Granted, while our media is not the only impacting factor, for instance, other factors like political gerrymandering and communal exposure also subliminally impact our political polarization, the media is perhaps the most upfront and overbearing of all these

Baum, M. A., & Groeling, T. (2008). New Media and the Polarization of American Political Discourse. Political Communication, 25(4), 345-365. doi:10.1080/10584600802426965

1: In the last few years I have found a keen interest in politics, almost every day I consume political media from podcasts such as “Abe Lincolns Top Hat” to TV shows such as “Real Time with Bill Maher”. Last year I volunteered with Congressman Raja Kirshnamorrthi to help his campaign, that experience helped me show how the political process happens. It was very humbling to know that someone like me can be involved in politics and make a difference for my country. As the 2016 election came and went I saw how much politics can divide the country, I would do my own personal case studies by talking to, and looking at twitters of Democrats and Republicans and discussing their opponents. I found that both sides could not see the good in each other and literally to a point of hatred of each other. My initial research question was “how does political polarization effect our education and how that effects other aspects of life such as the environment.” I knew on the first day of English 102 that I wanted to talk about political polarization, but, I later learned we would have to base our papers off Alfie Kohn. So, originally my idea was to fuse the idea of education with polarization, but I found that it would be too difficult to make that happen and by then I learned that we didn’t need to use Kohn so was able to create a