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Political Polarization In America

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“Well, I don’t know,” he absently pondered from his chair, “I’m not really the voting type, I mean, I don’t trust politicians and all that stuff.” This verbatim exchange occurred between a peer and I during a voter-registration drive that took place at my high school in preparation for the primary elections in Ohio, only a week or two after the drive. “What do you mean?” I shot back, “Don’t you want your voice to be heard?” Unfortunately, I was met with a polite goodbye and one less registered voter. It is a defeating reality that in this country my contemporaries occupy the least engaged portion of the voting population. It is societal trends such as this that must undergo the most scrutiny in order to change the narratives they create. The …show more content…
This feign of politics being a battle fought between those on either side, with the moderate middle becoming a no-man’s-land, is known by many to be political polarization. This polarization of politics creates countless inhibitions upon Americans seeking to be apart of the democratic process by inciting feelings of isolation if they hold a belief that does not cater to either extreme side of politics; in lieu of continuing to defend their beliefs not held by either side, individuals are more likely to denounce politics as a whole on account of feeling marginalized. This phenomenon betrays the cultural aspect of politics created by philosophers to empower the common man, by making him choose to subscribe to a set of ideals he may not entirely believe in. To mitigate someone’s voice into a contribution to a voting bloc is to dilute their humanity to the result on a ballot, further muddying political waters and causing peer pressure to support a certain party. This burden has slowly leaked into mainstream pop culture in America, extending the means by which Americans are being polarized. Pseudo-intellectual political talk show hosts will quip at the stupidity of their opposition, while the Parthenon of Twitter will tirelessly stream a fallacy of policy that demands support, leaving very little room for any set of ideals to exist on the middle ground. How could a young person choose? What could a political landscape so toxic be of use to anyone at any rate? Within this plight there is the answer; change only nascents through involvement; an idle conscious seldom has any say in the happenings of

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