So, the world is ending. Or, at least that’s what my Facebook feed is making it seem like. Trump was chosen to be the Republican presidential nominee, and it seems like everyone is going crazy. On one side of my social media, I have all my liberal, left-wing friends that are all either #NeverTrump or supporting Hillary, and on the other side, I have my conservative, right wing friends that are all gung-ho for Trump, either because they genuinely like him or cause “he’s a lot better than Hillary!”
That’s a phrase I’ve heard a lot in the last couple months: “he/she is at least better than (insert opposite party candidate).” And while I personally don’t like Trump or Hillary, I also hate the idea of choosing the lesser of two evils. Almost everyone I talk to has an opinion on which side of the spectrum they’re going to be on when the election rolls around in November.
This presents a problem that not many people realize they’re contributing to when they choose Trump or Hillary - political polarization. This is an issue that isn’t covered much in the news, but is something that definitely needs to be highlighted, especially in the face of two candidates that are more different than night and day. Political polarization, or the gap between how left Democrats are becoming and how right Republicans are becoming, has been growing slowly over the past 150 years. And a recent poll by the Pew Research Center actually showed that the two parties haven’t been this far separated since the Civil War - and back then, the country LITERALLY split itself in half!
Now, this may not seem like the biggest deal. Like, yeah, the two parties are separated, that’s the point of the two party system. Except that it’s not. According to Study.com, a two-party system is designed to represent the majority of the voters in the US - the Republican party reflects the majority of conservatives, and the Democratic party reflects the majority of liberals. But that is definitely not happening in this election cycle. In fact, up until a few years before she married Bill Clinton, Hillary was a staunch Republican, even advocating for and working on Senator Barry Goldwater’s (R-Ariz) presidential campaign in 1964. And Donald Trump has consistently voted, advocated for, supported, and donated to the Democratic Party all the way through the 2008 elections. He’s also publicly said (to CNN in 2015) that he “identifies more with the Democratic Party.”
This is actually a big problem. This is not the two party candidates advocating for the majority and the will of the people, this is two clowns saying whatever they can to get themselves elected and trying to out-left or out-right each other. And this polarization is not good for anyone. In fact, it’s hurting the majority. The above-quoted Pew Research poll showed that 23% of registered Democrats were “consistently liberal” while 20% of registered Republicans were “consistently conservative.” That leaves almost 80% of each party somewhere in the middle, stuck in la-la-land between Democrat and Republican, identifying themselves as something like ‘Libertarian,’ ‘Green Party,’ ‘Reform Party’ or ‘Independent.’ But by the time elections roll around, these people are forced to choose one side or the other in order to play a part in our democratic system. And while many people (myself included) may choose to write in their favorite candidate anyway, regardless of the nominees, most people have resigned themselves to choosing the lesser of two evils and voting for their party’s nominee.
Now, obviously the political election system needs to be overhauled, potentially adding more moderate parties to the mix, potentially adjusting how nominees are chosen, potentially eliminating the two-party system altogether. We’re all going to have different opinions on how the election process can get better. But all I’m asking for is for us to not be so polarized, and to not feel like we’re forced to choose between (IMO) the two worst presidential candidates we’ve ever seen.
So, come November, when we finally do vote for who’s going to be our Commander-in-Chief for the next 4-8 years, I encourage you to not feel like you have to vote for evil, whoever you may see that to be. And until then, maybe try not to get into as many political feuds on Facebook? We’re friends for a reason, and our political views do not have to separate us like the two-party system is currently trying to do.
