The United States: A Conflictual Political Culture

More so now than ever, it is becoming even more clear that the political culture of the United States is conflictual.  Politically, there is a great divide between the two sides labeled as Red and Blue America. In our country, there seems to always be a constant strife between Liberals and Conservatives.  These disagreements are on taxes, religion, equality, etc.
I agree with my fellow classmate Kailyn, with the claim hat people's beliefs come from their family and the people they are close to.  By hearing something over and over again by people you are around and believe, you start to believe it as well.
All United States citizens have political opinions on numerous amounts of topics.  But, the country as a whole has factions and a lot of conflicting groups and ideologies.  In the article One Nation, Slightly Divisible, author David Brooks tags people and areas as part of either Blue or Red America.   Blue Americans are wealthier and modern.  Red Americans are often patriotic, do-it-yourselfers, and people often looked at as rednecks.  Brooks, describes that "in Red America churches are everywhere.   In Blue America Thai Restaurants are everywhere."  Throughout this article, Brooks tries to define the people of Blue and Red America and it really shows the split in the way the people live their daily lives, what the sides think of each other, and what they believe in.  However, the article is extremely stereotypical like Morgan said.  Brooks puts the people of America in two categories and it is true when he supports with data that there is a large amount of gap between education levels in Red and Blue America according to the two areas. 

America has also shown its great split in one of the video examples of where the Governors of Illinois and Texas argued in part 1/3 about a rise in the minimum wage.  This was a classic example of Red America vs. Blue America because Texas is a Republican/Conservative state and Illinois is a Democratic/Liberal state.  In this argument, Illinois wanted to raise the minimum wage while Texas wanted to lower.  Neither side wanted to hear the other and strongly felt the opposing claim was completely wrong.

This is an image of the 2016 election map.
Lastly, in President Trump's last 100 days, many people feel he has not really done anything with any significance yet.  With having a conflictual political culture,  the divisions make it hard to rule effectively.  For example, Obamacare is still active and a new healthcare system has still not been put in place because the sides cannot come together and agree on a new one.  We are in a country where "our current political culture is that it is primarily driven by negativity," according to Washington Monthly.  This is beyond true and supports heavily to the fact that the political culture is conflictual because any time the Democrats or Republicans want something, the other side opposes without hesitation.

As Americans, we all live in a country of people who where their political opinions on their sleeves.  The United States is populated with many different factions and quite frankly is divided when it comes to political views.  We are not consensual because we are not even close to having the same views.  The United States government works at a slow pace because of all the conflicting ideas and they do their best to make compromise.

Discussion Questions

Do you think we have a conflictual or consensual political culture in the United States?

Is a division in political views and culture a good or bad thing?

Sources

https://washingtonmonthly.com/2017/07/21/why-republicans-are-failing-to-repeal-obamacare/

One Nation, Slightly Divisible