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Political Polarization Essay

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In his Farewell Address, George Washington warned Americans about the effects of political polarization, saying,“One of the expedients of party to acquire influence, within particular districts, is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts.” Polarization is the division into two sharply contrasting groups or sets of opinions or beliefs. The political gap between Democrats and Republicans has been a growing problem but has seemed to get increasingly worse in recent years. Although the two-party system can help create balance within the government, political polarization is detrimental to American society because it causes tension between citizens and effects our daily lives. Ideological differences are visibly the main …show more content…

In the Obama vs. Trump era, the parties have a hard time with this concept as they are so determined to prove the opposing party wrong. As shown in the study by Pew Research Center, 55% of Democrats have a high distaste for the Republican party while a whopping 58% of Republicans have highly unfavorable opinions of the Democratic party. When far-right businessman Donald Trump who held no prior public office got elected as president in 2016, liberal was not only shocked, they were disgusted. Polarization has created such a gap between the parties that the conservatives decided to side with a choice they knew the liberals would despise the most out of all the candidates. After Trump was inaugurated, the tension started rising to new heights as the media has attacked Donald Trump more than they did President Obama or Bush (according to Pew Research Center), but that is only because the president has been unwilling to agree with any liberal ideologies in the slightest, trying to reverse all work done by Obama. 2017 was a horrific year for politics as we have been more politically divided than ever, being riddled with questions of civil liberties and various types of scandals between each of the parties. Since the greater part of the government is going to be controlled by

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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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Looking at document B you are able to see how the media in this case is clearly shaping the publics interest and informing the people, “The journalists at Good Morning America on Wednesday discussed Barack Obama’s State of the Union address for seven minutes and 19 seconds, but only allowed a scant 16 seconds for the GOP response ( a 27-1 disparity).” By only allowing the 16 seconds for the response they are controlling what issue are most talked about and they are controlling what we are most informed about. In document C when looking at the data you can see that Romney spent $5,892,480 alone on TV adds in Florida. He spent this much in campaign add to increase his voters turn out. A major part of campaigning is just getting your name out

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Political Parties DBQ Political parties have been a controversial topic for a long time, even when the United States were just beginning. However, in the early days of the United States political parties were not the best thing for the new government. The parties often caused rivalries to form, and people could end up hating others just because they had different political ideas. Political parties would make people lie; they would cause people to get hurt; the government would also be negatively affected. Political parties in the early United States caused people to lie.

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In the article Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America, Morris Fiorina addresses the issue of the illusion of political polarization. Political polarization is the separation of political beliefs into two separate extremes. The main illustration Fiorina uses is the use the electoral map. The electoral map is used to gauge which party won an election or polling.

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George Washington had a vision for the United States of America that seems to be unattainable. In his Farewell Address, he gave a strong warning to the nation: don’t create political parties, and don’t create alliances with other nations. While Washington had good intentions, there was little possibility of his warnings being heeded. Political parties were established before Washington even left office, and permanent alliances with foreign militaries show no signs of disappearing. Washington acknowledged that political parties are a part of human nature in his Farewell Address, and that still holds true today.

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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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