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The Pros And Cons Of Political Polarization

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Today, we live in a world where states are color-coded by political party. Red states represent the Republican Party, while blue states represents the Democratic Party and in some cases states are labeled purple because they swing back and forth between political parties. The ideology of Democrats, in our new political era is for the most part liberal, while the ideology of Republicans is conservative. The nature of ideologies has become more predictable because Democrats over the years have leaned more to the left while Republicans leaned more towards the right; however, this was not always the case. The Republican ideology has not always been conservative, but it use to also contain liberal perspectives while the Democratic ideology wasn't …show more content…

A reason to blame for these changes is political polarization. Political polarization refers to cases in which an individual’s stance on a given issue or policy is more likely to be strictly defined by their identification with a particular political party. The result of political polarization has not only left politics divided but the nation as a whole. Political polarization has added to income class division and race division in turn adding to our divided nation. In this essay I will argue that political polarization has been a leading cause in the reason our nation is as divided as well as analyzing multiple articles to bring in different sides to this idea of political polarization. Republicans and Democrats rule the political party spectrum taking much of the population under their wing. This leaves out a large part of the population who fall under those who can’t vote or those who do not fit into those particular political ideologies. When you think of the Republican party, you may think of many red southern states or you may just think of conservative white folk. The percentage of right Republicans has increased a lot compared to twenty years ago, “Today, 92% of Republicans are to the right of …show more content…

According to their article, “Causes and Consequences of Polarization”, the causes can be divided into two broad categories. “... (1) explanations based on changes to the external environment of Congress and (2) those based on changes to the internal environment (23). The external explanations are meant to argue that the shifts in social, economic and electoral environments change the norm of elected incentives, while internal explanations argue that Congress and other institutions have evolved in ways that exacerbate partisan conflict. External causes include: a polarized electorate, southern realignment, economic inequality and primary elections, while internal causes include: nationalization, rule changes, and party pressures. A strong partisan electorate has been clear for many years because the results of each election have become more and more consistent. “The results of all these elections closely reflected the underlying strength of the parties in the states and districts, and the fact that, while the nation as a whole is closely divided between supporters of the two parties, the large majority of states and congressional districts now clearly favor one party or the other” (Abramowitz 318). This may show party loyalty, but it also shows the reason why division is such a big issue, certain ideologies on behalf of states are slowly being set in stone

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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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Andrew Gelman splits the book into three sections each part explains the paradox in even more detail. Part one of the book discusses how the Republican and Democratic Party have changed throughout the years. It explains how the voting patterns between democrats and republicans are changing and how pundits on both sides are puzzled. Gelman lets us know which states have higher income and if income is a high predictor of votes in that state. He informs the reader about which party does better every year.

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Some changes in party polarization in Congress over the last several decades are the party division between Republicans and Democrats as having widened over the last several decades, leading to greater partisanship. What caused this change was increasing homogeneous districts and increasing alignment between ideology and partisanship among voters. I feel this can be good because the original congress was just one and if you did not agree with this opinion you could not do anything about it. Now at least you can fall under a category which is Republican or Democrat. In fact, I believe there should be more than just two parties because I know most people like some of the ideologies from Democrats (such as being more liberal) but they also like

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Additionally, they add “This party dynamic has fostered two Republican factions, polar alliance Republicans on the one hand and moderate Republicans on the other.” (Flentje and Aistrup 25). Credit is given to the New Right movement of Ronald Reagan in the 1980s and the pro-life movement for adding fuel to the dividing Republican party and ultimately creating the polar alliance Republicans in Kansas. Although, I do agree with the authors that there is definitely a split in the Republican party that I have seen during my time interning in the Kansas legislature, I disagree with several of the observations they have

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In addition, the true divide is amongst the political parties, because the voters are of greater moderate and centrist in their opinions. The thesis of the “Culture War” is that the American population is not polarized because of all the misinterpreted data, and the selective coverage of the media. In the next chapter, he explains

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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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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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With supporters on both sides, these domestic issues polarized the nation, leading to the

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Party strength is a measure of the ability of a party to get people to vote for its candidates. The post-World War II shift in party strength was part of a massive shift in policy over time. Scholars saw Republican politicians increasingly excel at getting elected at the local level (Lublin 2006), to offices in the state (Hayes and McKee 2007), and federal governments (Black and Black 2002, 1992; Shafer and Johnston 2006). It is difficult to see how the Republican Party would have become the majority in Congress in 1994 without the increased voting strength in the South. This marked a dramatic shift in national policy.

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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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They spawn from the ideas of Federalism: birthing the Democratic Party, and Anti-Federalism: birthing the Republican party. Federalism is for a unified state, seeking the interest of the whole, while Anti-Federalism is for a division of power among many states identifying as a whole (Hamilton et al). Regardless of original intention, both sides have set viewpoints on many social issues, often being opposite of one another. With so much focus on these two parties, one may think it is silly to mix viewpoints. That creates the problem of conformity.

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Republicans vs. Democrats When the United States of America was founded, George Washington warned against the formation of political parties. By the time the second election came around there were already two political parties, the Federalist and Democratic-Republicans. These parties eventually turned into the Republican and Democratic parties we have today. While these parties have shifted to become almost polar opposites politically, they still share some common goals.

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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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How do external factors affect political decisions made in the United States? Politics is a subject not many people are comfortable talking about. The subject matter tends to create harsh divides between families and social groups, and is mostly altogether avoided to preserve relationships .However, in light of recent events, it seems as if politics is all anyone is talking about. Everyone is suddenly interested in the matters of this country because they want to know how how so many things could have been let go wrong.

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491 Words | 2 Pages

Political parties serve countless roles in America’s government. Foremost, it needs to be said they are crucial to America’s political system. The political parties are the heart and brain of our government's body, urging people to conceive and feel different ways on different topics whether the controversy is over how money is distributed or the way immigrants should be treated or dealt with. With each party having a biased view it shows how a group can be increasingly powerful with bountiful amounts of support, names and divisions can be heard. Democrats are widely known to be liberal rather than conservative.

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