Most people feel powerless in politics today. They can cast their vote, but in almost every case, they are disappointed with the way the government operates. While they can elect a new person into office in the next election, they are convinced that the replacement politician will do no better. … and they’re right.
A typical voting district in the United States looks something like this:
People have their individual concerns. Most people want gainful employment, a safe neighborhood, and a chance to pursue life, liberty, and happiness. They want to elect people to represent them in government who will create a framework that will result in giving them their best shot at life, liberty, and happiness. For the most part, people have ideals that they believe will help them achieve this American Dream. Most ideals are not extreme left or right. Instead, there is a relatively even distribution of ideologies.
As political campaigns ramp up there are two choices that this group of people gets in a general election. Instead of representing most people in the middle, there is a choice between a far-left candidate (Democrat), or a far-right candidate (Republican). This choice combined with heavily funded campaigns from both political parties creates a new reality.
This results in a polarized electorate that is evenly divided between the left and the right. In many cases a few voters decide not to vote at all or vote for an alternative candidate because they are tired of the fighting. The winner will have a narrow victory and celebrate. While the loser will never be heard from again. The loser's supporters are left without representation and must wait until the next election for a more favorable result.
Get Out to Vote!
The more people that vote the better. Right? If it were only this simple. Political parties desperate for power understand the voting game. Much of the electorate will not vote. They are either turned off by politics or don’t feel like they understand enough to cast a vote.
This is where political parties engage most actively in what are called “get out to vote” campaigns. If politicians have done a good job of pandering and division, the “get out to vote” campaigns are easy. Democrats know that they will typically win at least 85% of the Black vote. So, if they encourage Black people to vote, they will gain an advantage. Republicans know that if they can motivate more religious people to vote, they will gain an advantage. After “get out to vote” campaigns, the electorate demographics change.
In this example, the Democrats were able to convince more of their favorite voters to vote, and the Republicans didn’t do such a good job. The “get out to vote” campaign worked.
Get out to vote campaigns and the format of how the election is conducted will change the result of elections. In 2020, Republicans lobbied against mail-in ballots because Republicans historically performed poorly with mail-in ballot voters. Democrats lambasted Republicans for not wanting eligible voters to vote. Political parties know political demographics well and manipulate a polarized electorate to win political power.
Polarized People = Polarized Government
The winner of this close race is sent to Washington DC, where polarization becomes a greater problem.
Once your representative makes it to congress or the presidency, they support their political party’s ideologies. Statistically speaking, this extreme left or extreme right position will not reflect your best interests.
There are one of three ways the U.S. federal government operates: 1) Majority Republican; 2) Majority Democrat; or 3) Gridlock.
If the result is a Majority Republican, the government will govern with extreme right-leaning political solutions.
Likewise, if the result is a Majority Democratic, the government will govern with extreme left-leaning political solutions.
Both Democrats and Republicans know that their extreme positions are not desired by most Americans, so they know that they will lose their majority in the next election cycle. This is known as the “midterm flip”. This means the extreme majority needs to pass as much biased legislation as possible before they lose power.
The minority party’s job is to resist, stall, and restrict funding and proposed laws being proposed by the majority.
In the case of gridlock, the president gains greater power over the operation of the government. The president will write executive orders that dictate the way government is operate. Since the president and his/her cabinet lead government employees, they will operate in a way that favors their political party.
When elected officials are busy fighting, government employees create their own systems of government. This is called the “deep state”, or more simply “government bureaucracy”. Government employees are the most familiar with government systems because they are employed for life. They can easily manipulate elected officials… especially, outsiders who don’t know how to play their bureaucratic games.
The system of government that we have in this politically polarized environment is guaranteed to result in the disaster that we see with energy policy, the economy, healthcare, ethnic division, foreign policy, immigration, taxation, social security, and any other government topic you can name.
Polarization = Division
The worse part about political polarization is that it leaves us divided. To win elections, politicians use wedge issues that favor a slight majority within their respective district. This results in pandering to specific groups of people convincing those people that they are victims of the “other people”. Who are the “other people”? They are your neighbors… your family… your colleagues… and fellow Americans who want the same things that you want. This leaves most people angry at their fellow Americans who have no intent to cause them harm.
Democrats (the left) and Republicans (the right) have good ideas. The problem is that in a politically polarized environment these ideas are taken to extremes and are often used to penalize people who disagree with their ideals. In a polarized environment, solutions are extreme, expensive, and wrong-minded. Corruption by the majority is ignored while minor offenses of the minority are attacked with rigor by the majority. This is not a recipe for individual liberty and justice for all.
Unity is the Solution
If polarization is the problem, then unity is the solution. I started this discussion with a non-polarized group of people that simply want to live their best life. They have diverse wants and needs like any group of people. The idea of government is not to give each individual person what they want or need. The idea of self-government is to create the best chance for everyone to live their best life without infringing on the rights and liberty of other citizens in that same government. This is not easy.
Shameless Book Plug
I’m an engineer by schooling and by profession. I love to solve complex problems. Our political polarization problem is complicated. Instead of giving a quick answer to this complicated problem, I address this problem along with solutions in my book, Engineering Unity: A Path to Resolving Political Polarization in the United States. In my book, I objectively describe controversial political issues. These issues are “wedge issues that politicians use to divide us. While this division is great for politicians, it is deadly for our United States. You will clearly see how polarization is yielding the wrong solutions to the wrong problems; and what we can do about it.
If you want to learn more, you can find my book in paperback, audio book, or Kindle.
About the Author
Jeff Schuster is an accomplished businessman, engineer, and writer. Three of Jeff's books are attempts at helping people understand and solve political problems that are being made worse by political partisanship. His first book, Trial & Error, is a collection of 14 short stories published in July 2014. ReEngineering Education was published in 2015 and entails a story of innovative education reform in the midst of political corruption. Engineering Unity is Jeff's most recent book published in August 2023 addressing political polarization on wedge issues that politicians use to divide us. You are welcome to join our private Facebook group called Reengineering Politics where we discuss politically polarizing topics in a civil manner.
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