Political polarization is dangerous to society
One of the largest problems facing this country today is political polarization. Political polarization is when the political right and left become so ideologically far from each other that they can no longer compromise and work together. This causes stagnant legislatures and hatred toward the other side.
People blame their political opposition for any problems they have and refuse to work or associate with them. The process of political polarization can often be destructive and has led to public unrest and dysfunctional government.
The first question that must be asked is, what causes political polarization? The answer to that question lies in what experts in many fields refer to as the concept of ideological silos. The concept of ideological silos is the idea that people choose to associate with people that they agree with and choose not to associate with people they do not agree with. Most of us live in some form of ideological silo, and it makes sense that we do.
If someone is more liberal, they’ll probably live in a city, and if they’re conservative, they’re more likely to live in a rural area. That means people aren’t required to mix with and understand people that think differently than themselves.
People will find themselves in a place where their chosen ideology dominates and everybody agrees with them. When this happens, people in mutual agreement tend to blame their collective problems on the political opposition.
For example, a small town in rural South Dakota is probably mostly conservative, which means most people blame many of their problems with the government on the liberals (it must be said that the same thing happens with liberals). When this kind of thought prevails, the ideological silos see the other side as either evil or ignorant.
This process manifested itself in the form of the government shutdown of 2013. Ideological silos have a tendency to elect more radical individuals who are less willing to compromise. In 2013 Congress was unable to compromise on the budget and shut down the government. Recent Congresses have been more deadlocked than ones from the past. The way to stop this problem is to stop electing people that won’t compromise.
The root cause of the political polarization problem is that people refuse to associate with people they don’t agree with. The key to understanding breaking this cycle is understanding that the people that disagree with you on political issues are not evil, most of the time.
When you start to believe that the other side are people like you who want the same thing as you but just disagree about how to get it, you can start to understand why they think what they think.
If everybody does this, it will lead to a more moderate voting population which will elect more moderate candidates who are more willing to compromise to get things done in the legislature and elsewhere.
Encourage others to try to understand people they disagree with so we can stop political polarization.
