Extra Credit: Political Polarization in the U.S.

            Political polarization became extremely relevant over the course of the last year. In the historic 2016 election period, the Trump vs. Hillary debate was all anyone could talk, or should I say argue, about.

            Political polarization is the idea that everything has become very conservative or very liberal; nobody is willing to learn about or hear from the other side. Politically, I tend to find ideas I stand by on both sides of the spectrum. However, as a fan of neither candidate in this election cycle, I was very much an outsider watching my peers go back and forth about why their preferred candidate should win the election. It was something I couldn’t escape. I watched people debate in class, while walking around campus, and in my own circle of friends. No one was willing to let up and listen to his or her opponent’s point of view.

            Something that is not helping the political polarization of the U.S. is the array right- and left-leaning news sources. No one is getting absolutely correct information from these news networks because they each support a specific political agenda. Arguers for Trump would cite facts they heard on Fox News, and Clinton supports would in turn use MSNBC to back up their claims. If we truly want to fix the division of political agendas and work toward a common goal, our news sources need to focus on putting out the truth, not just what they know their audience wants to hear.

            Political polarization is the exact opposite of the dissoi logoi fragment: the idea that there are two sides to every argument. In order to fix the heated opposition in our country, we must believe in this idea. If we don’t learn this soon, the U.S. will become more and more divided as time goes on. As American citizens, we should want what is best for our country. To do so, we need to be open to the ideas of others.