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