In Wednesday’s Rose Café, we met Professor Kenneth Roberts, who teaches government here at Cornell, and discussed some very troubling developments regarding partisanship in America. For starters, we learned that even though many Americans only loosely affiliate with the party they vote for, they harbor deep antipathy towards the other party; voters are not being driven by their support for one party, but their disdain for another. This is compounded by the fact that a vast swath of the electorate believes that the other party is “a threat to the well-being of the country.” Partisanship amongst the people has and will continue to create a more partisan government, which prevents us from addressing many of the complex social problems Americans currently face.
We also discussed many of the causes of polarization, from primary elections to gerrymandering to partisan media. This was especially important, because if we want to solve a problem, we need to determine how it came to be. With this knowledge, we can act according to the exact nature of the problem in order to find a solution.
To add to this, I wanted to bring up the point that there is a demonization on a more human level that also occurs for many individuals in this political dichotomy. Being from a much more moderate and realist political view than many other individuals on campus makes me feel alienated the second political discourse arises. I hope that we can create a solution together, as an academic community to this problem!