United We Stand, Divided We Are No Longer the Greatest Country in the World

It has been said that Barack Obama is the most polarizing president in American history. But think back to just the president before him, and he was also called polarizing. It's an alarming trend, and it's showing up more than just with the supreme leaders of politics. Many of today's most popular political players encourage extreme views, and if you don't see it their way then you are labeled un-American. It's divisive politics, and its making people want to choose sides. The left says the right is nothing more than a bunch of racists who are stuck in the past. The right says anything the left does is leading the country towards socialism and eventually communism. Both extremes make it seem as if the other side will be the destruction of America.

Is any of this actually close to the truth? Not really, especially if both parties continue to work together and make compromises. But if the only approach both parties take is to create laws that appeal to one extreme and then the other side smears the other side for doing it, then the country will become more and more divided. Take Arizona for example; a law appealing to an extreme view was passed, then other states respond by boycotting Arizona, then Arizona responds by saying boycott energy too. It’s very divisive and very disturbing.

It can be hard to believe that divisive politics works as well as it does, considering the wide range of political beliefs that Americans have. It would also seem that with all of the things one party stands for, that no one could identify with just one party. But with political critics continually painting viewpoints that don't align with theirs as evil, and people not wanting to identify themselves as evil, it is understandable that divisive politics works. And because of this, a line has been drawn in the sand, and that's a bad thing. The way to fight against this political extremism is for people to stay informed and to read news from multiple sources. People should know if they are getting news from only one source, then the information is likely biased. An easy way to get news from multiple sources is to use Google News. People don't have to agree with everything they read, but being exposed to multiple viewpoints is important, because then they can at least try to understand where the other side is coming from. Understanding is far from agreeing, but it’s better than dividing.