Essay On Polarization
There is no doubt that the United States’ democracy is cherished by Americans and even envied by other nations. Giving power to the people is a privilege and it gives citizens a sense that their opinion matters. In the recent decades, the U.S. has started to become more politically polarized than it has ever been before. This means that the separation between the liberals and conservatives, or Democrats and Republicans, is very evident and continuing to grow. Polarization can be seen as an accessory to democracy in the sense that it makes the different sides of controversial issues very clear to the public, ultimately leading to a higher voter turn out. On the first day of the 1961 Congress session, the former Republican speaker, Joe Martin
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Many people claim that the politicians we choose to represent us as a whole do not accurately show how the general public feels. Politicians and the public see major issues in a very different way. This again is due to the fact that most politicians now are either very left or right. This brings us to an issue with democracy. Polarization helps with democracy in the sense that it makes a clear difference between two sides on an issue. When people choose a side and stick with it, they are more likely to vote. But if polarization if more common among the elites, the general public is not accurately being represented. Even though we get to vote for our representative, there are many factors that play a role in how you are represented. For example, if you are a conservative and live in a predominately liberal part of town, you most likely get a liberal representative and your opinion will not be accurately represented. When it comes to state representation there are twenty-four states that the Republicans are in full control of, and seven states that the Democrats are in complete control of. This comes out to 47.8% guaranteed Republican vote and 15.8% guaranteed Democrat vote. The rest is a split between the two parties, but there is also gerrymandering, “…even without Republican gerrymandering of House districts, the geographical distribution of Democrats and Republicans across the nation inherently produces gerrymandering” (New York Times). This just means gerrymandering will naturally happen based on
Many people claim that the politicians we choose to represent us as a whole do not accurately show how the general public feels. Politicians and the public see major issues in a very different way. This again is due to the fact that most politicians now are either very left or right. This brings us to an issue with democracy. Polarization helps with democracy in the sense that it makes a clear difference between two sides on an issue. When people choose a side and stick with it, they are more likely to vote. But if polarization if more common among the elites, the general public is not accurately being represented. Even though we get to vote for our representative, there are many factors that play a role in how you are represented. For example, if you are a conservative and live in a predominately liberal part of town, you most likely get a liberal representative and your opinion will not be accurately represented. When it comes to state representation there are twenty-four states that the Republicans are in full control of, and seven states that the Democrats are in complete control of. This comes out to 47.8% guaranteed Republican vote and 15.8% guaranteed Democrat vote. The rest is a split between the two parties, but there is also gerrymandering, “…even without Republican gerrymandering of House districts, the geographical distribution of Democrats and Republicans across the nation inherently produces gerrymandering” (New York Times). This just means gerrymandering will naturally happen based on