Politics have become so polarized in recent years that voters may feel the need to only go along with their party on issues, but this isn’t always what they truly believe in.

The level of partisanship in this country has been on the rise over the past decade. Since the tragedy that occurred on Sept. 11, 2001, the country has become more polarized toward its two dominant parties.

This is due to disagreements between the parties over how the aftermath of the attack was deal with.

Republicans and democrats didn’t see eye-to-eye on how terrorism should be handled and this led both parties to move toward their extreme values.

Supposed allies now shun the moderate politicians from both parties and ideologies have become bleached to their core.

In this political atmosphere we hear more citizens touting their party’s beliefs, without actually researching and coming to their own conclusions.

Although politically aware Americans are something that excites me, I can’t help but cringe at the lack of compromise considered by these folks.

Every social and fiscal issue we face in this country can’t be resolved by considering the values of just one side of the political spectrum.

Both sides need to resolve issues through compromise, rather than the gridlock we see in Congress that gets us nowhere.

The current conduct of our politicians has even impacted the way citizens consider others who affiliate with an opposing party.

Citizens can filter out any information that does not agree with their views.

It seems like the major news networks have chosen to pick one party’s side, with MSNBC leaning toward the left and Fox News on the right. These networks are only providing viewers with information through a looking glass of one side of the political spectrum.

“This demonizes the people who associate with the opposing party, when we used to just consider them to be decent people with different views on issues,” said Sacramento State government professor Kimberly Nalder.

Increased polarization has grown in coalition with increased popularity for the Internet, where people quickly find information and advocate their party’s beliefs to a new extent.

Despite this information making more people politically aware, simply affiliating with the values of one party can mean that citizens are not truly considering alternative solutions.

This system is only cheating our country out of discovering real solutions to important issues. There isn’t one ideology that can solve every problem.

The whole idea of living in a country that acts like a community is working with one another to understand what is at the heart of conflicts and how we can reach agreements with all sides of the issue.

But recently the political rhetoric in this country has become more of a boxing ring than an intelligent debate.

Rather than challenge the public to actually find out what they’re voting on, the media attempts to push people to simply vote along their party lines.

Many voters are straight-ticket voters, meaning they only select candidates and legislation that support their political ideology. But I think there has been a shift in the way voters are starting to affiliate with parties.

In California, the amount of people registered as declining to state party affiliation is on the rise according to the Public Policy Institute of California.

Even though most of them vote along with one party or the other, these citizens are tired of the negativity associated with the major parties.

Especially during this current campaign season, we have seen politicians attempt to move farther toward one side of the political spectrum and this has caused them to lose moderate voter support.

Romney has been criticized for alienating the moderate conservative so much that he risks losing these votes to President Barack Obama. The way he has handled things like women’s issues makes it difficult for even hard line conservative females to give him their vote.

Although Romney is appealing to his hard-core conservative base, these are the individuals that typically vote straight ticket anyway.

Pushing toward one ideological platform alienates those voters who might not always vote one sided, and this is where the Republican and Democratic parties struggle.

There needs to be an understanding among political parties that going to the extreme on every issue isn’t going to guarantee a win, because the vital swing voter usually has moderate positions.

Straight ticket voters also need to see the importance in understanding who or what they are voting on. They could be electing a platform that is more extreme than what they believe.

Finding compromise within the major parties and their constituencies is important in arriving at real solutions to our country’s issues.

 

Samantha can be reached at: [email protected]