RAMEEN ASLAM
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blue, partisans of Biden and Trump watching avidly with bated breath to gauge who might win one of the most tense elec tions of all time. It seems that day by day, Americans are consumed by their individ ual opinions which lie on opposite ends of view, threatening to consume the pop ulation and to destabilize the democratic roots of America. Political polarization is not a new phe nomenon for the United States. In fact, it Union and Confederate states battled over slavery. But this is the very nature of po initial, single political divisive ideology and entrenching itself deeply and dividing points out that “polarization is both a state and a process.” Broadly, it can be divided into elite polarization between govern ments and parties, and mass polarization between the electors in the general public. In the American case, it is this mass polar ization that has become blatantly apparent So why is it that the US has become so dan gerously polarized? Some might blame Republican and Democrat governments other perspective blames cultural divides between citizens, including race, religion, ethnicity. This has led to the general belief that Republicans are conservative and tra ditionalists, whilst Democrats are far more moderate in terms of religion. It may even
point or another. This is where Americans might be entering the rather danger ous realm of identity politics where there is a tendency to remain enclosed in one’s own social bubbles and view those with contrasting ideas as enemies or being com pletely irrational. Evidently, the economic reasons must not be over the American economy with ple unemployed in May, it is very likely to lead to sharp ideological divisions, which forced voters to choose be tween Biden or Trump’s eco nomic policies to be imple mented. But the growing extent of po litical polarization can also be attributed to mass media outlets and the rising pres ence of voters on social me dia. It should be no surprise that articles, videos and news posts tend to be exceedingly ed, which not only creates a dangerous terrain of “us not them” by demonizing pres idential candidates, but is often used as a means of af sentiments are further forti
debate, which descended into infantile
are aggrieved and even in denial about the Democratic victory, with many claiming
tween the two presidential candidates.
the US. As society becomes more diverse
Polarization is often viewed as being
als and beliefs is bound to crop up at one
Wayne stated, “I didn’t vote for him but he’s my President, and I hope he
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does a good job,” upon the election of John F. Kennedy. Contrastingly, in the wake of
claims of a vote fraud and refusal to back down until votes have been recounted. These are merely examples to illustrate how, over the course of time, a loss of faith