Each semester, the Alligator seeks new columnists to fill up its opinions pages. In our application, we usually ask applicants to include a brief explanation of their political and ideological viewpoints.
We have been asking this question since last August, because the Alligator — whether you believe we are a left-wing rag or a Fox News wannabe — has tried to consistently include a diverse set of viewpoints. But we are also very adamant that our applicants avoid using partisan labels (i.e., Democrat or Republican) when describing their views.
Whether the media and political elites like it or not, fewer Americans fit the classic binary mold of political sorting. Although there hasn’t been significant change in terms of those who identify as Republican or Democrat over the years, a poll by the Pew Research Center shows that the number of people who identify as Independent has increased from about 26 percent of the electorate to 33 percent over the last 10 years.
Watch MSNBC or Fox News on any given day, and it’s hard not to believe that the country is growing more polarized. However, these media outlets and politicians fail to point out that, statistically, polarization is only really happening among the elites.
It’s getting even harder to separate us by political ideology, i.e., liberal or conservative. In 2008, political scientists Morris P. Fiorina and Samuel J. Abrams found that moderates continue to make up the largest category of the electorate, according to survey data.
More importantly, there is still a debate among scholars about whether or not people actually know the meaning of terms such as liberal or conservative. How can we trust media polls and reports when people don’t even know what these terms mean? How can we even begin to classify people into tight-fitting ideologies when they likely differ on more than a dozen issues?
If someone supports low taxes and less business regulation but supports gay marriage and drug legalization, is that person a conservative or a liberal? Some would say that they’re a libertarian, but maybe they vote for the Democrats or even the Green Party.
Given this ambiguity about the political leanings of Americans, why do we try to identify everyone’s political positions with labels that have become increasingly meaningless to most people? We the people often deserve just as much blame as the media and political elites.
While we all argue with each other, struggling to fit perfectly into team red or team blue, those in power seek to increase the government’s control and reach.
Instead, shouldn’t we be focusing on issues and not parties? Shouldn’t we be focusing on individual ideas and not ideological labels?
Of course, we do not demand that everyone figure out their political beliefs or even that everyone care about politics. Just don’t feel forced into following or supporting one of the two major parties without thinking or caring.
