The Pros And Cons Of Political Polarization

Today, we live in a world where states are color-coded by political party. Red states represent the Republican Party, while blue states represents the Democratic Party and in some cases states are labeled purple because they swing back and forth between political parties. The ideology of Democrats, in our new political era is for the most part liberal, while the ideology of Republicans is conservative. The nature of ideologies has become more predictable because Democrats over the years have leaned more to the left while Republicans leaned more towards the right; however, this was not always the case. The Republican ideology has not always been conservative, but it use to also contain liberal perspectives while the Democratic ideology wasn't

A reason to blame for these changes is political polarization. Political polarization refers to cases in which an individual’s stance on a given issue or policy is more likely to be strictly defined by their identification with a particular political party. The result of political polarization has not only left politics divided but the nation as a whole. Political polarization has added to income class division and race division in turn adding to our divided nation. In this essay I will argue that political polarization has been a leading cause in the reason our nation is as divided as well as analyzing multiple articles to bring in different sides to this idea of political polarization. Republicans and Democrats rule the political party spectrum taking much of the population under their wing. This leaves out a large part of the population who fall under those who can’t vote or those who do not fit into those particular political ideologies. When you think of the Republican party, you may think of many red southern states or you may just think of conservative white folk. The percentage of right Republicans has increased a lot compared to twenty years ago, “Today, 92% of Republicans are to the right of

According to their article, “Causes and Consequences of Polarization”, the causes can be divided into two broad categories. “... (1) explanations based on changes to the external environment of Congress and (2) those based on changes to the internal environment (23). The external explanations are meant to argue that the shifts in social, economic and electoral environments change the norm of elected incentives, while internal explanations argue that Congress and other institutions have evolved in ways that exacerbate partisan conflict. External causes include: a polarized electorate, southern realignment, economic inequality and primary elections, while internal causes include: nationalization, rule changes, and party pressures. A strong partisan electorate has been clear for many years because the results of each election have become more and more consistent. “The results of all these elections closely reflected the underlying strength of the parties in the states and districts, and the fact that, while the nation as a whole is closely divided between supporters of the two parties, the large majority of states and congressional districts now clearly favor one party or the other” (Abramowitz 318). This may show party loyalty, but it also shows the reason why division is such a big issue, certain ideologies on behalf of states are slowly being set in stone