The United States Government is built on democracy. More precisely, it is a representative democracy in which power belongs to the people, and we, the people, choose political representatives to reflect our ideals and ideologies. But going even further than that, the United States is a two-party political system with obviously democrats and republicans. And this is where the divide begins across the nation.
Political polarization is the growing divide in the United States, where both sides of the political spectrum and the people who follow them move away from middle-ground viewpoints and increasingly toward extreme positions. This divide exists and is used politically to separate people further from one another based on extreme left- and right-wing politics by politicians to gain more support for their end of the political party.
Politicians use political polarization all the time as a tool in a grand majority of aspects of their job, such as speeches, debates, and gaining voter support. In terms of voting, a major way politicians use political polarization is by making elections feel like battles or wars for “what’s right”. They present things as complete extremes and in black-and-white terms like right versus wrong to drive supporters to the polls not just out of seriousness but out of extreme political ideologies they suggest.
Another way is by controlling narratives around politics. The main way politicians achieve this is by using deflection on all accounts and shifting blame for anything immediately onto the other political party.
And while they seem like aspects anyone could see and notice, it’s actually the exact opposite, with many citizens and voters becoming blinded by the black-and-white wording used by politicians in order to create divides that benefit them.
And honestly, there is not much that can even be done about it. Yeah sure, once you see it and know about it, it’s extremely hard to unsee, but not everyone wants to see it to begin with. Many people find the beliefs, even when extreme, to be of their own, and vice versa; it’s inevitable cause and effect, and all that can be done is for us as people to opt to have proper civil discourse and openly look into and share fully correct, unbiased information as much as one can do.
