Advanced Essay #3: Fractured Americ

Politics in the United States has changed a lot over the last few decades. In the past, Democrats and Republicans have been able to come together and pass laws to improve our country. However, now that is very rare, with a party often needing to control the White House and both houses of Congress to pass meaningful legislation. As our politics grow more divided more divided so has the nation’s identity. We are being pulled apart from each other by dramatic ideological differences between the major parties and political language that is divisive and disrespectful.

The bases of the two major political parties are as far apart from each other on policy issues as they’ve been in the last hundred years. For the last 23 years, Pew Research has conducted polling to seek the opinions of the two major political parties on several basic policy issues such as the role of government and environmental policy, among others. When they first started conducting the poll there was an average difference of 15% between how the two parties thought of these issues. (Taylor) Now, the difference between the two parties is a whopping 36%. (Taylor) These differences have led to a lack of bipartisanship on Capitol Hill. In recent years both parties have passed bills without the support of a single member of the other party voting for it, such as the Affordable Care Act in 2010 or the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. This leads to disappointment and anger among the minority who feel that their views are not being heard by the rest of the country. These feelings, often aimed at the majority party, has led to an ever-rising tension between the two parties.

One of the greatest things pulling people apart are the social differences between the two political parties. Take race, for example. According to additional Pew research, 75% of Republicans believe that “blacks who can’t get ahead in this country are mostly responsible for their own conditions.” (Taylor)  Only 28% of Democrats share that viewpoint (Taylor). In addition, while only 13% of Democrats think homosexuality should be discouraged, 37% of Republicans believed it should be. (Taylor) The differences between the parties are even greater on opinions about gay marraige. Similar divisions exist on issues related to immigrants, poor people, and an assortment of other issues. As a consequence, given that Republicans control the White House and both houses of Congress, a number of groups scorned by many Republicans feel excluded and ostracized.

The language used by elected officials and candidates has also served to pull our country apart. During the 2016 campaign, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said that half of all Trump supporters were deplorables. Meanwhile, the Republican Donald Trump has taken offensive statements to a whole new level, most recently blaming the FBI for the mass shooting at a Florida school, because they had devoted too many resources to investigating his ties to Russia (Twitter). During the campaign, a video surfaced of him bragging about sexually assaulting women, and at various times he has made numerous statements that have offended African Americans, Latinos, immigrants, and Muslims. We’ve gotten used to these statements, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t further divide us. Every time Donald Trump or someone else takes to Twitter, it riles people up, causing clashes between their supporters and those who find what they said wildly offensive.

A difficult characteristic of our divisive politics is the increasing dislike for those with whom we disagree. A plurality of both Democrats and Republicans (44 and 45 percent, respectively) said they dislike those who are members of the other party.  Only 14% of Republicans and 9% of Democrats said that they had many friends from the other party. From these statistics, it is clear that there is more than just an ideological divide between the parties, but a social one as well. Democrats and Republicans tend to stick to themselves, but when we don’t associate ourselves with those whom we disagree with it become difficult to find compromises and repair the relationship between the two groups.

In the last decade, politics has become the most dividing issue in our country. As the parties’ voters continue to be further divided and candidates and politicians continue to launch verbal attacks on each other, it is likely that these trends will continue. Americans will become more and more divided, the number of people who say that they dislike members of the other party will rise, and people will continue to feel as though they don’t belong in their communities.