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Myth Of Polarized America Analysis

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In the book Culture War? The Myth of Polarized America the author Morris P. Fiorina details how the country believes that America is separated into two major political parties, the Democrats and the Republicans with a few swing voters in between. However, the author states the actuality is that more people are on the inside of the lines rather than extreme liberal ideologies and extreme conservative ideologies. The author discusses controversial topics such as abortion and gay marriage and shows examples as to why polarization on these topics are not seen in America. He goes on to explain how America is actually quite the opposite in that the nation is depolarizing their views on these contentious topics. Americans tend to turn to culture wars when they feel a deep anger and frustration about the state of affairs. An example of Americans caught in a culture war was during the Monica Lewinsky affair or as Fiorina puts it, “The year of angry white males”(2) where in the year 2000 Americans were more angry than ever before. A culture was is when a large number of people from a certain demographic oppose and loathe their …show more content…

Bush and John Kerry that took place in 2004 which Fiorina begged the question Fiorina, What one issue mattered most to you in deciding how you voted for president? (146) A majority of the American people answered saying either taxes, education, or the problems in Iraq. Fiorina precedes to then ask the people, What did you like most about your choice for president? The public then responds with saying that he shared their values. So with this I believe that most Americans have about the same values they may have a slight difference of opinion on different subjects but I don't believe this constitutes our nation as being as polarize has some may believe. Americans definitely debate and discuss the issues but I agree with the author when he states that America is not

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In the United States there are two major parties involved in our political structure, Democrats and Republicans. Since 1836, these two parties have dominated the political scene and Democrats and Republicans have controlled Congress and the presidency since 1860. Now, within these two parties there are people with progressive and conservative ideologies. These ideologies are not confined to only one political party, but instead are largely based on the individual’s opinion and perspective. Generally speaking though, most conservatives are Republicans and most progressives are Democrats.

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In the article, “The Case for Partisanship” by Matthew Yglesias, he explains how in the 1950’s, the American Political Science Association’s Committee strongly presented the idea that polarization is good. Today, many people look down upon political polarization. The mid-20th century appeared united politically but in fact the country was deeply divided over civil rights and politics. Conservatives and liberals could appear in both the Republican and Democratic parties due to foreign policy and racial issues overlapping on traditional conservative and liberal beliefs. The interconnection of political parties in the past has suddenly gone down.

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This is depicted when the states turns red if a state votes for the majority Republican, or the turns blue if the state votes primarily Democratic despite if there is a close margin. Fiorina discusses the uses the illustration to present the false illusion of political division and the influence media has on the public. The strengths in the text are Fiorina’s ability to persuade the audience. The persuasiveness is achieved by relating to the people.

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136 Words | 1 Pages

I believe that political polarization is very damaging to our society. As stated in the text book, polarization can lead to no middle ground for Americans. Having people who support a certain political party so strongly can prevent there to ever be a compromise. Tom Davis and Martin Frost, both former US Congressmen have even suggested a law requiring states to appoint representatives that are non-partisan in the hopes of diluting the polarization in Congress in 2008. They believe that too much polarization in Congress is because of the popularity of primary election for the government.

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1672 Words | 7 Pages

Blow explains how over the past years, the country has separated through a widening of the gaps between different types of groups of people in the country which have very different ideas and beliefs that clash against each other. Blow strengthens his evidence by giving specific examples of the gaps seen in modern America such as the occurrence of secessions in both the

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1280 Words | 6 Pages

Americans today are split between sides – one side favors movements such as Black Lives Matter, while the other often makes comments

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977 Words | 4 Pages

Party polarization is the process where political factions spatially align themselves ideologically in reference to other factions. In simpler terms, it is when parties pick sides on the current issues. Most if not all of the polarization effects occur when it is paired with other trends such as partisanship and fractionalization. While polarization can manifest itself in many ways in different political systems, the party polarization in the U.S. is what will be discussed here. Although polarization usually creates negative effects, in certain situations it can be very beneficial, but in the U.S.’s case specifically polarization is becoming a burden on the democratic process.

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572 Words | 3 Pages

Over the last decade congressional polarization has increased at alarming rates causing Washington insiders and outsiders alike to worry about the future of American politics and democracy. While Democrats and Republicans on The Hill cannot agree on much, they both acknowledge that the increasing level of polarization in Washington is crippling the entire legislative branch, thereby undermining the greatest democracy in the world. Numerous public opinion polls, over the last few years, have shown that the vast majority of the American public, regardless of party affiliation, disapproves of, and feels unrepresented by, the extremely polarized legislature (Gallup, 2016). However, year after year, despite how many Americans become disgruntled

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747 Words | 3 Pages

Ever since the start of time in America, the country has always been divided because of all the events that have happened. Those events affect everything that happens in America and they always change people. That’s why I believe that America is just too divided to unite for the common good of our society because of the past events that happened, it’s always been too divided, and not anyone in America wants to unite. We will now explore these six sources and discover why America’s too divided to unite.

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860 Words | 4 Pages

Sydney Winter Professor Nick Banach English 101 10 October 2017 Rhetorical Analysis: Heineken 's Worlds Apart Ad The author uses this text to confront the huge divide in American citizens based on their political beliefs and uses the interviews of the participants as a way to introduce that conflict to see what the participants would do. I am trying to prove that because of the great divide in America right now caused by the political climate; the author is trying to address this problem by opening up people 's eyes. The author of this text uses the interviews in the beginning of the video to 0:59 to establish which participant has which political views and why they believe in what they do. The author also uses the interviews to help the audience understand the contrast in the participant 's views.

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614 Words | 3 Pages

Pratt explains that this intersectionality of cultures produces ideas and perspectives about people of different cultures. In developing a broad course on cultures, Pratt engrossed students of various backgrounds and experiences such as a would soccer team produce. In the United States, there are numerous subcultures that fill the melting pot known as America. The dominant culture is that of white, middle-class, Protestant people of northern European descent. The subdominant cultures of the U.S. include Asian Americans, Jews, African Americans, Latinos, and among others, are seen as facing a choice to oppose, be opposed to assimilation or otherwise react to the dominant culture.

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We see America at its worst. In their quest for power, political elites in both parties want to turn the nation 's core beliefs upside down. They believe the power of government should be more important than individual rights. Policy discussions quickly degenerate into discussions of government-selected winners and losers. The end result is an overregulated and over-politicized nation.

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442 Words | 2 Pages

Accordingly, the ideals of America used to be we were many ethnicities, all blended into one, but now we are a bunch of discordant ethnicities living in one country under one name just with different groups. Two essays on this topic are A Quilt of a Country by Anna Quindlen and The Immigrant Contribution by John F. Kennedy. JFK regarded that “everybody is an immigrant or the descendant of an immigrant” (JFK page 23). Quindlen characterized that “America was held together by a notion that all men are created equal and that America is made up of bits and pieces” (Quindlen page 13-14). America transpired a unique nation made up of different parts.

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1081 Words | 5 Pages

People were perceptive enough to recognize a common enemy, and unite their strengths in order to abolish unwanted policies and infringements. Thus, they were able to form their nationality bonds through a common effort in expelling matters of dissonance consistency. Like Canada, America Jessi Signal, author of “There are Three Types of American Nationalism”, describes, “adhered to a “form of national self-understanding associated with a set of liberal principles—universalism, democracy, and the rule of law—sometimes referred to as the American creed””(par. 8). This “American creed” has become the center of American patriotism and loyalty to their nation.

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2506 Words | 11 Pages

Finally, it will be argued that the modern political party system in the United States is a two-party system dominated by the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. These two parties have won every United States presidential election since 1852 and have controlled the United States Congress since 1856. The Democratic Party generally positions itself as centre-left in American politics and supports a modern American liberal platform, while the Republican Party generally positions itself as centre-right and supports a modern American conservative platform. (Nichols, 1967)

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