Conflictual America

A conflictual culture is defined as where citizens are sharply divided on the legitimacy of the regime and solutions to major problems, where political subcultures can erupt and divisions could make it difficult to rule effectively. In America, there is a constant argument over many controversial topics such as abortion, healthcare, minimum wage, and taxes.

People's views and beliefs are based on the way they were raised. This means that people's belief differs extremely because of uprisings from generations from long ago. This creates a huge divide in because everyone is brought up differently and from different types of people.

The US is divided into 2 groups the Red States and the Blue States. The Red States, "tend to live on farms or in small towns or small cities far away from the coast" and the Blue States, "tend to live around big cities on the coast"(David Brooks, "One Nation, Slightly Divisible"). Also, “Red America is traditional, religious, self-disciplined, and patriotic. Blue America is modern, secular, self-expressive, and discomforted by blatant displays of patriotism”(David Brooks, "One Nation, Slightly Divisible"). These completely different characteristics generate completely different political beliefs and cultures. And because of these completely different opinions, there is a huge divide between what is considered right and wrong.

However, I do agree with Madison Cossette and Morgan Matyoka, because those statements made by David Brooks are extremely stereotypical, and that is probably the reason why the divide is getting bigger and bigger. This is proven in the video "The Bad Map We See Every Presidential Election" because not all red states live on farms(Florida) and not all blue states live on the coasts(Colorado). On top of that, the maps are actually inaccurate because it really does not show the correct amount of electoral votes each state gets. For example, the state of Montana is way bigger than Massachusetts, however, Massachusetts get 12 electoral votes and Montana only gets 4.

Don't get me wrong though, there is a huge divide between the Democrats and the Republicans based on just what they think is right and wrong. For example, the Republicans condemned the Supreme Courts decision on same-sex marriage. However, the Democrats applauded the US Supreme Courts decision that legalized same-sex marriage. Obviously, there are so many more disagreements, this is only one. Others include abortion, immigration, healthcare, etc. All disagreements come from differences in political ideologies and cultures. Given the points above, the United States of America has a conflictual culture.