Conflictual America

          Political culture can be described as the set of attitudes, beliefs, and sentiments that give meaning to a political process and that provides the rules that control behavior in the political system. With that definition in mind, picture the U.S.’s political beliefs. Being one of the most populated and technologically advanced countries in the world, you can imagine that Americans have a wide spectrum of beliefs. We feel so strongly about our own beliefs that we disregard the beliefs of others. With everybody disregarding beliefs that don’t match up with their own, conflict is created. Therefore, the American political culture is conflictual.                  

           Inside America’s political beliefs, there are two main groups that rise about the many others: Liberals and Conservatives. Liberals are generally more open to new behavior, change or opinions and willing to look past traditional values. Conservatives are people who are against change and stands with traditional values and attitudes in relation to politics and controversial topics. They believe in completely opposite values because they are surrounded by opposite values. “People in Blue America… tend to live around big cities on the coast…People in Red American tend to live on farms or small cities far away from the coasts…Things are different there.” “Red America is traditional, religious, self-disciplined, and patriotic. Blue America is modern, self-expressive, and discomfited by blatant displays of patriotism” (Brooks). In David Brooks’ article, he uses the terms Red and Blue America, as Conservative (red) and Liberal (blue). He describes the many differences between the two parties, and explains the ways the values cause them to be different. Red America is very religious, which has a large impact on what they believe in. Blue America is less religious, which causes them to live less by the bible. Brooks also mentions something called the Meatloaf Line. The meatloaf line is the line that separates the Red America from the Blue America in a certain area, implying that usually Red Americans live in a different area than Blue Americans. The meatloaf line idea perfectly explains how the country is conflictual. Liberals and Conservatives are so different that there are typically towns with 90% or more of one of the two parties.
            In the video the Crossfire, the views between the republican and democratic governors of Illinois (blue) and Texas (red) are extremely different. The governor of Illinois, Pat Quinn, had raised the minimum wage over the belief that if there is a mom or dad attempting to support kids working hard in a minimum wage job, they should get paid to properly support their children. The governor of Texas, Rick Perry, disagreed with that statement, saying that we shouldn’t be telling one person who has a job that they will no longer have a job in order for these other people to have jobs. All of these different political views separate our country into liberal and conservative.

         The image above shows how the Liberal and Conservative sides of America are almost equal,  dividing American politics in half. With two sides that strongly believe in their own values, conflict arises. 

Discussion Questions:

1) How did such a divide occur over time?
2) Do you think our country will ever be politically united?
3) Where did the two sides, Liberal, and Conservative come from?