People are becoming more and more open with where they stand on the political scale–outing yourself as Republican or Democrat is not as taboo as it used to be. This time that we are now living can allow for healthy peer education and conflict–but it's not. We skipped over the idea of embracing political differences and went right to demonetizing the other party–this creates an era of partisan politics and it is detrimental.
Partisan politics is a term used to describe people and politicians who strongly support their party's policies and are reluctant to compromise with their political opponents. The situation is not entirely our fault though. President Trump, other politicians, and the media play into the idea that red and blue cannot leak, which just encourages the people to stick to their guns.
President Trump's entire campaign was fueled by partisan politics, I hate to admit this, but it was genius. He wrangled in the blue-collar middle-class with promises of help and revenge. He capitalized on the American aesthetic by using nostalgia and ignited a dangerous flame inside the bellies of burnt American workers. He sold them the idea that identifying as a pure, red, Republican will get them what they want–and it worked.
Political media, in capitalist-America, is a business first and foremost. It was intended to be a fourth branch of power so it could act as a check for all the other branches, but media can't survive and succeed doing only that. Media, like Trump, thrives on capitalizing on partisan politics. Media outlets get their side riled up by telling the viewer just how wrong the other side is. Quickly into Trump's presidency, the typically Democratic news outlet, CNN, started reporting on every single thing Trump did that was quirky–immediately diminishing their credibility and getting misguided, angry and uninformed Democrats upset about things that do not matter. CNN and other news outlets knew people were angry about the election and created a storm of political angst inside their consumers.
Last week in class I heard a discussion between two people, who have different political identities, the conversation could have been eye-opening for both people, but it was cut short by someone saying, "well that's just my opinion." This happens all the time, another popular phrase is, "well that is what my family believes so." I'm guilty of this, I get it, talking politics can get awkward and conflict in everyday conversation isn't settling, but we need to get over that fear. We need to have those conversations with an open mind because it will change politics.
One complaint about the government everyone has is that people feel like nothing is getting done. We can change that, by not allowing partisan politics amongst ourselves, also by filtering out the sensationalized garbage in the media. Politicians are representative of the people–they rely on us and we rely on them. When we start embracing those conversations and stop defining everything as Republican or Democratic beliefe, then demonetizing what your party does not agree with, things will change. The decent politicians, who aren't in the job for a selfish interest, will reflect that in their job, gears will start roatating and things will get done.
