We have reached a critical stage in our nation’s history. Facing a slow recovery from the Great Recession, and a nearly insurmountable debt crisis, the time is rapidly approaching for America to make a choice about its current and future direction.
Regardless of the winner of the presidential election, it seems highly unlikely that a quick resolution is in order.
At this point, it is about two months prior to Election Day, and each candidate has already, or currently is defining himself to the American people at his party’s convention.
In an era marked with wide ideological divisions among congressional leadership and a record-low approval rate, Washington, D.C., remains partisan with polarizing views, making it difficult at best to the pass high-impact legislation that the American people are calling for.
President Obama or Gov. Romney will struggle to fulfill campaign promises if Congress remains divided. At this point, it seems unlikely that one party will control Congress. Therefore, whoever is head of the executive branch will struggle to reach a consensus among political leaders and thus will be required to compromise.
President Andrew Jackson once said, “To the victor goes the spoils.”
In the case of this election, neither Obama nor Romney will see the spoils of victory due to the hyper-partisanship of Washington, D.C. Throughout the Great Recession, group polarization has taken affront, thus pushing conservatives farther to the right and liberals farther to the left of the political spectrum. This ideological shift makes compromise difficult, alienates voters and leads to an overall lack of progress that fails to address our issues.
As such, group polarization in our government has had a limited response to our most urgent problems — most notably deficit reduction and job market improvement. With these major issues, it’s no wonder politicians are holding firm to their beliefs. With that being said, the blame game has gone too far, and any chance of compromise is insurmountable for all individuals involved.
Recent political movements have claimed that we ought to return to our founding principles as explicitly presented in the Constitution. Regardless of views on this standpoint, a return to our founding principles could assist in solving our country’s problems.
Though not expressed in our founding document, President George Washington, in his farewell address, urged the American people to avoid political parties. In the present era, the campaign process is fully relegated to bitter attacks on the opposition instead of discussion of the issues. As such, tensions between political parties have become more severe since the development of social media, the Internet and TV. As a result, progress has been inhibited as our elected leaders over and over again have failed to lead us. While the names have changed, the overall result has not. No major politician is immune to succumbing to political games, as emphasized by the development of fast-paced media.
It is easier to blame the opposition than to develop bold solutions.
While I do not suggest the political parties be abolished or altered, party extremism, as established by group polarization and spread by the media, encourages the hostile argument and bitter tensions that inhibit the development of practical solutions through meaningful legislation.
The road of extremes Americans have driven on will drive us to turmoil and has left the majority of citizens behind. While the Founding Fathers did not always agree on the issues of the day, they called for America to avoid the development of defiant and opposing factions of government.
The rise of extremism on both sides of the political spectrum discourages compromise between parties and harms the interests of the American people in general.
Matthew Schnur is an economics freshman at UF. His column runs on Wednesdays. You can contact him at opinions@alligator.org.
