ENGL 2010

MRS. NISSON
ITINERIS EARLY COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOL
OCT. 15, 2023

Divided We Stand:
Political Polarization and Its Effects
On the United States
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By Bennett Hackett

Image courtesy of Penn Today

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Introduction
Today’s world is becoming increasingly more divided. In a culture of tribal institutions like sports

teams, professional wrestlers, and more, it’s often more common than not to find people drawing

lines in the sand over arbitrary things. In the last two decades or so, however, one thing has become

extremely divided: politics. Polarization happens all over the world, but it has been increasing rapidly

in the United States. The reason why polarization is so strong lately is that the United States Congress

operates on a bicameral system, which means “two chambers.” These chambers are the House of

Representatives and the Senate, both of which have members from each political party. This allows

not only people inside each chamber to compromise, but also for the two to compromise with each

other. This is compromise is one of the most basic things that needs to happen for the US government

to function. However, political parties are now becoming extremely polarized. The people are more

divided, and thus elect Congress members who are no longer willing to compromise. As a result of

this, the government is breaking down. I’ve personally been seeing this happen every day when I look

at the news; from government shutdowns to budget cuts to indictments, Congress is obviously falling

apart as a result of this polarization. So this led me to ask the question, “why does polarization

happen, and how does it affect our citizens?”

Role of the Media

After extensively researching this problem, I discovered that a lot of political polarization is caused by

the media. In the modern age, most news is consumed online. The success metric for online content is

how many clicks, likes, and shares an article can get. So in order to get these metrics higher, news

outlets write extremely attention-grabbing and controversial stories. While this may be good for their

numbers, it’s not so good for the general public, who begin to believe exaggerated or untrue things. Of

course, some polarization is the norm. There wouldn’t be two parties if they didn’t disagree on some

things. But the levels of polarization the US is facing right now is far from normal. The Brookings

Institute says that “…the extreme polarization we are now witnessing, especially on the political
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right, has consequences that threaten to undermine democracy itself. These include declining trust in

institutions; scorn for facts; legislative dysfunction; erosion of democratic norms; and, in the worst

case, real-world violence” (Barrett, 2021). One person right in the middle of recent polarization is

Donald Trump. Extreme conservatives believe he is a brilliant president who is being unfairly

attacked, while liberals believe he’s guilty of the many crimes he’s being indicted for. This debate is

relevant to the media problem as well, because Trump was banned from Twitter, and created his own

media platform, Truth Social. The problem with this custom social platform is that it acts like an echo

chamber, because those who disagree with him will not download his app. Even so, this “echo

chamber” phenomenon happens to people from all across the political spectrum, on every social

media app. Social media algorithms are built to only show users things they will “like” and interact

with, which includes politics

and news. As the Star Tribune

put it, “In a nation marked by

increasing ideological

uniformity and partisan

animosity, those with the

most consistent ideological

views on the left and the

right have information

streams that are very distinct

from each other and from

those of individuals with

more mixed political views."

(Rash, 2014.) Obviously this

creates a lot of tension, as shown by Figure 1, where people are arguing over their views of Trump.

And this is only one of the many things that people debate over, amongst abortion, healthcare,

immigration and more.

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Polarization Is On The Rise

Polarization is increasing, but by

how much? Recent studies by the

Pew Research center shows it to be

more than most people would

expect. Even in just the last twenty

years, the American public and

Congress have become so divided

that they are not able to pass

budgets, laws, or bills. The graph

shown in Figure 2 sums up data

collected over 23 years on political

ideology. Political parties are

voting farther apart than ever before. They are much less willing to compromise and to find similar

ideologies. In the past, many members of Congress were moderates and were able to help the two

parties work together. They would “swing” the votes and make it so each party could win certain

policies. Now, this nearly never happens. There are only a few “swing” voters left in Congress. The

two parties are fighting over small details. Recently, even members in the same party have begun to

attack each other over policy disagreements and frustration with job performance, as seen with the

recent removal of Kevin McCarthy from his position as Speaker of the House, or with Robert. F.

Kennedy Jr. deciding to run as an independent candidate, despite anger from other Democrats.

Effects On the Public

So polarization creates problems in government, but how does this affect the public? Jennifer McCoy,

a professor of political science at Georgia State University, says there are four likely outcomes of
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continuing polarization. First, the country is able to depolarize and keep democracy intact, which

would be the most desirable outcome, but would take a lot of work on both sides to solve the issue.

The second outcome is that the country is able to depolarize, but suffers democratically. This would

be a regression into totalitarianism, such as a dictator taking power, which has been seen many times

throughout history; just look at Hitler, Castro, and more. The third outcome is the country continues

to live with the extreme polarization without any major democratic loss, which is the state that the

US has been in for decades. Currently we still have the basic functions of a democracy, and that has

not changed despite much polarization. But with the average voter becoming more polarized, it is

unlikely we will be able to exist in this state for much longer. The final outcome of polarization would

be that the country experiences harmful and even more extreme polarization as well as a loss of

democracy, something that would essentially be a second civil war. At the end of her article, McCoy

writes that “pernicious polarization is a uniquely corrosive and dangerous force in democracies”

(McCoy, 2022). She also gives examples of reforms (shown in Fig. 3) that may help to prevent the

country from

destroying its own

democracy, such as a

proportional

representation system,

(used by New Zealand)

and ranked choice

voting (used in Ireland)

can help to create a more inclusive and free choice government. (McCoy, 2022)

Conclusion
From all this evidence, it’s undeniable that political polarization is a real issue; one that could

threaten to end democracy as we know it. The media fans the fires of hate, and hate strengthens the

divide in the national public. This divide, if left unchecked, will then lead to four possible outcomes,
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only one of which will reduce polarization and keep democracy intact. So how would I answer my own

question: “why does polarization happen and how does it affect the public?” My response is that

polarization occurs for a variety of complex reasons, but no matter what the cause, it is a danger to

democracy. Polarization can only be ended if we can agree to disagree, if we can learn to compromise,

and if we can grow to accept the beliefs of others. If we want to save our form of government, we need

to act now.
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References
Barrett, P., Hendrix, J., & Sims, G. (2021, September 27). How tech platforms fuel U.S. political

polarization and what government can do about it. Brookings.

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-tech-platforms-fuel-u-s-political-polarization-and-

what-government-can-do-about-it/

Fair Vote Canada Staff. (2023). What is Proportional Representation. Fair Vote Canada.

https://www.fairvote.ca/what-is-proportional-representation/

FairVote Staff. (2023, August 21). Ranked Choice Voting. FairVote.org.

https://fairvote.org/our-reforms/ranked-choice-voting/

McCoy, J. (2022, January 18). What happens when democracies become perniciously polarized?.

Carnegie Endowment.

https://carnegieendowment.org/2022/01/18/what-happens-when-democracies-become-perni

ciously-polarized-pub-86190

Murray, M., & Marquez, A. (2023, June 15). Here’s what’s driving America’s increasing political

polarization. NBCNews.com.

https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/meetthepressblog/s-s-driving-americas-increasin

g-political-polarization-rcna89559

Penn Today Staff. (2019, October 16). The 2016 election did not increase political polarization. Penn

Today.

https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/2016-election-did-not-increase-political-polarization

Pew Researchers. (2017, October 5). Partisan Divides over Political Values Widen. Pew Research Center

- U.S. Politics & Policy.

https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2017/10/05/1-partisan-divides-over-political-values-wi

den/
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Rash, J. (2014, Oct 25). Media-political divides in D.C. and at home, too: Political polarization also

manifests itself in broadcast, newspaper and Facebook behavior. Star Tribune

https://libprox1.slcc.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/media-political-di

vides-d-c-at-home-too/docview/1616734049/se-2