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Essay On Congressional Polarization

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The trend in congressional polarization overshadows the trends in public. While congressional moderates dissipate, moderates in the public “in the United States stands at its highest point in more than 75 years” according to polling (Smith). Many moderates ‘lean’ toward the left or right which causes the first problem in many polarization studies. Polarization means that constituents disperse from the center of the line to either or right into political parties, not necessarily radical, but many of these ‘leaners’ continue to vote on an issue to issue basis (Enns and Schuldt). Congressional polarization differs immensely; this trend appears more as sorting where partisans move to more “extreme ideologies” (Hill and Tausanovitch 1060). Moderate …show more content…

Moderates hold a distinct importance on the political stage; they do not have loyalty to a political party and can vote for a candidate for any reason they decide. Moderate ‘leaners’ claim to align more closely with the right or the left leaving very few neutral (Ball), but some assume that these ‘leaners’ then are simply less radical conservatives and liberals (a). When researching the most recent presidential election, Enns and Schuldt stumbled across the importance of both neutral moderates and ‘leaners’ in President Trump’s victory. Rather than holding little influence in politics, moderates hold an important ‘swing vote’ because they can swing from party to party depending on which issues they find most …show more content…

Due to lacking a partisanship, moderates view each side of an issue considering the virtues of every side before making their choice (Smith). By considering every issue this way, moderates can consider each candidate completely without bias. They can simply view candidates for the issues that they represent rather than their partisanship which allows moderates to make an informed decision before voting. This completely contrasts with many who belong to a partisanship who vote to simply support their political party. Moderates vote to support the issue that they find most important rather than favoring a singular political

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