Why are we so divided in politics? What has happened to our country?

2017-05-26T14:38:26-04:00

Response by SSgt Ryan Sylvester made May 26 at 2017 2:41 PM

2017-05-26T14:41:33-04:00

We've always been divided on politics. That's the entire basis of the party system.

Response by PO3 Steven Sherrill made May 26 at 2017 3:01 PM

2017-05-26T15:01:47-04:00

SPC Randy Torgerson I think it is less about becoming so divided, and more that it is more perceptible in the age of social media. Before political opinions were seen on voting day, and within the local communities. Now it is on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and even here on RP. The social justice crowd has also propagated this by throwing an idea up so that they can berate anyone expressing a dissenting opinion. That is a part of our devolving civilization. It used to be that agree or disagree about the content, people would allow for a dissenting opinion. Now it is racist this and snowflake that because a dissenting opinion has been expressed. I have used snowflake myself, not because of a dissenting opinion, but to refer to a love, light, and dolphin tears person who refuses to acknowledge that a different viewpoint might have merit.

Response by SGT Joseph Gunderson made May 26 at 2017 3:09 PM

2017-05-26T15:09:56-04:00

Ok, this is an interesting question and it is an important one. In the beginning, our political process was participated in by people that were more or less simply invested in the greater good of the young nation that they had just began. Back in those times we had clear enemies to the state (i.e. British interests, the Native Americans, Mexico, etc.) but this made things easy. As a whole, the country stood together just so that we could all survive. As time went on, enemies became more ambiguous. As we venture into the future, people in the country began to not only aim their sights at exterior enemies, but also at interior ones. The political parties became more cut throat. Make no mistake, there has always been mudslinging in politics back to the dawn of time, but recently we see that there is this idea that whatever side of the aisle has the podium, the other side must be evil or unable to get the job done. This creates enemies within the system. In addition, Americans are a very competitive bunch. We love to say that we have won, that we are in first place. This fact comes into play in politics and is very detrimental. Instead of actually voting as we might agree with issues, now we side with a particular party without thinking about what the person stands for and thus we get this hatred for the other side because we all just want to win. We want to be able to say that the sucker that we voted for made it into office. As the process continues, and as long as Americans refuse to think for themselves and get away from this team like idea of politics, the system will continue to suffer and only get worse in the future. People need to realize that politics is not a team sport. It is much like a spelling bee. If you don't know the right answer, how to spell the word, then you lose; you obviously aren't the best candidate. But that isn't how people see it. People would rather believe that a politician is something more like their Quarterback and those in the party are the members of the offense, and that it is solely their job to get that QB to a touchdown so that they all can claim the big W. It's sad. But I don't foresee this changing anytime soon.

If you really want to get a better idea about the flaws in the political system I would say that you can look up the lectures of Ben Shapiro. I really enjoy his lectures and in fact I learn something new from listening to him almost every time that I watch him.

Response by SPC Randy Torgerson made May 26 at 2017 3:10 PM

2017-05-26T15:10:54-04:00

Why are we so violently divided?

Response by SPC Randy Torgerson made May 26 at 2017 3:45 PM

2017-05-26T15:45:58-04:00

A lot of responses to the original question states one reason for the violent or harsh tone is the instantaneous access to news and events. However I don't see how having faster access somehow creates more decisiveness and influences the harsh tone from the left..... Or is it just simply establishment loosing their grip and all they can do is wedge this deeper divide until it implodes?

Response by SFC Kelly Fuerhoff made May 26 at 2017 4:19 PM

2017-05-26T16:19:59-04:00

America has been divided among political lines since the Founders sat down and figured out how to make this country. Let's be realistic. There's always been a divide politically.

Response by SGT Tony Clifford made May 26 at 2017 4:57 PM

2017-05-26T16:57:22-04:00

Being divided on issues is nothing new. People have always disagreed. The new breed of discourse where everyone dispises one another is something that hadn't happened since the abolition movement (look up bleeding Kansas). The new level of disrespect is tied to the rise of the internet. The older forms of media allowed for many different viewpoints as they needed to cater to everyone. By contrast, cable news and especially internet media only need to cater to one market. This allows for echo chambers to form. After enough time without hearing challenges to their ideologies, people no longer critically evaluate their ideas and assume that they are the arbiters of truth. Thus you get people who hate each other because to concede any point is to admit their own overinflated self worth might be lacking.

Response by CW4 Guy Butler made May 26 at 2017 5:01 PM

2017-05-26T17:01:58-04:00

Part of it is the idea of party purity. You might want to to a look at this; I've included the best graphic over time. Division of Democrat and Republican Party members over time.
Each member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1949–2012 is drawn as a single node. Republican (R) representatives are in red and Democrat (D) representatives are in blue, party affiliation changes are not reflected. Edges are drawn between members who agree above the Congress’ threshold value of votes. The threshold value is the number of agreements where any pair exhibiting this number of agreements is equally likely to comprised of two members of the same party (e.g. D-D or R-R), or a cross-party pair (e.g. D-R). Each node is sized relative to its total number of connections; edges are thicker if the pair agrees on more votes. The starting year of each 2-year Congress is written above the network. The network is drawn using a linear-attraction linear-repulsion model with Barnes Hut optimization.

And there's a paper:

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/figures?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0123507

Apache Tomcat/7.0.52 (Ubuntu) - Error report

message Request processing failed; nested exception is org.ambraproject.wombat.config.site.TemplateNotFoundException: Expected to find template at: ftl/article/figures.ftl

Response by SPC David S. made May 26 at 2017 9:32 PM

2017-05-26T21:32:21-04:00

Part of the problem is in the rise of identity politics. No longer are politicians interested in building a political platform that is durable and conducive to solidarity - its about marginalizing everyone into smaller more malleable groups. We have given politicians the ability to define us as not as individuals but rather as labels - gays, whites, Christians and so forth that have become politicized.