It was Tuesday, January 21, 2013. I was in my eighth-grade year at St. Agnes School, it was the day Barack Obama was inaugurated for his second term as President. I was your typical “Catholic School Girl,” slightly a little too sheltered and concerned about things that really didn’t matter. At that point in my life, I had not formed a political opinion or preference of my own. I was curious, but one thing I did notice was our country coming together on this special day to recognize and appreciate our President. I distinctly remember our entire school and the other schools in the district stopping whatever they were doing at the time of the inauguration and streaming it for us to see. It was clear that some people weren’t happy with the outcome of the election, but they still recognized the importance of the day. 

Flash forward four years. I am in my senior year of high school. At this time in my life I considered myself more educated, and I did form my own political preference. In addition to being more aware of my political opinion, I noticed a quite alarming difference in this election compared to the last. The controversial campaign and candidates were the reason I chose not to vote because I wasn’t confident in either candidate. The day Donald Trump was inaugurated President of the United States was such a different day than when Barack Obama took his oath. I remember walking down the hallway questioning why the inauguration wasn’t playing in one classroom across the school. I was confused how such a historical event could all of a sudden go unnoticed, and something about it bothered me in an odd way. To validate my annoyance, I was called out by one of my classmates in the hallway while standing at my locker. Little did he know, Donald Trump did not receive my vote, but apparently just being a Republican was enough to get him going. The one thing I pulled from that day in school was tensions were high, and the difference between this Inauguration Day and the one I experienced in eighth grade couldn’t go unnoticed. This was the day that I was inspired to dig a little deeper and tell the real American horror story. 

It is a proven fact that everyone’s political opinions form through the political socialization process. Different factors make up this process like your family, education, various peer groups you may associate yourself with, the media, and the political events currently happening right now in our country. With political socialization comes political preferences, with political preferences comes strong opinions being formed by citizens which ultimately leads to debate and arguments. Due to how we are wired, our personal morals, and our certain ideologies, we live in a country where the natural reaction to someone with opposing political views has become hate, and this divide is bigger than we have ever seen. After this past Inauguration Day, my curiosity sparked, and I was determined to figure out what causes these issues between the left and the right and where it all started. 

So, let’s talk genetics. Some say that our political identity is something that is hardwired into us as young children. Essentially, we are born into thinking a certain way. Is this really the case? Sasha Issenberg asserts, “Over the past few years, researchers haven’t just tied basic character traits to liberalism and conservatism, they’ve begun to finger specific genes they say hard-wire those ideologies… an individual’s path to a political identity starts not with a series of choices but with long-ago genetic mutations.” Psychologist John Jost conducted a study where he was determined to figure out the psychological infrastructure of politics. But instead of asking questions about politics, Jost asked random questions pertaining to almost anything you could think of, from do you like bars? Do you like children? And even what are your thoughts on motorcycles? Jost also surveyed the dorm rooms of Berkley students. Through all his random questions and observations, Jost did discover one thing. Liberals answered the questions all fairly the same and so did Conservatives; and in addition, Liberal dorms were way more colorful, and Conservatives were less stylish and comfortable with their dorms.  Kind of weird to think about, but Issenberg utilizes Jost’s study in her article to prove that we in fact are hardwired a certain way and that does play into how we choose our political partialities. 

Peter Hatemi and Rose McDermott developed their scholarly article around the basis of arguing that genetic influences on political preferences tend to remain unaddressed for many researchers who more than likely view them as socially determined. Hatemi and McDermott stress, “The natural inclination to be political constitutes a core of existing in society; it is ingrained in humanity.” This is something that is a huge aspect of the political socialization process, our genes and our families. It is easy to sit at your dinner table and listen to what mom and dad are saying and latch onto their opinion. Obviously, you share the same genes as your parents, so it does makes sense why you would have the same thought process on a lot of things in life. You are capable of forming your own opinions in the long run, but your genetics and family life have a major impact on how we think psychologically and there is just no way of avoiding it. 

So, as our family life and genetics allows us to form opinions, we form values which help form these so call “ideologies.” When looking for evidence of polarization, the self- reported ideologies that Americans possess are one way our country has noticeably grown apart. In his article “The Country is Frighteningly Polarized. This is Why,” Fareed Zakaria discusses how political scientists have proven that the divide is not just present in the citizens in our country, but Congress is more divided than ever as well. Zakaria makes the valid point, “Partisanship today is more about identity.” People now define themselves less on economic issues, rather they are defining themselves on issues about identity like gender, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. These are things that we are born with, which going back to Issenberg’s argument and Jost’s research connects perfectly. Looking at this past election it “…had to do with social class, with non-college-educated rural voters reacting against a professional, urban elite” (Zakaria). Here’s the danger that lies within the political climate today: when things start to become about identity, there is no more room for compromise. Because let’s really think about it, when things are about economics, it’s easy to just come up with some sort of number to split the difference. How do we compromise with identity? That’s right. You can’t. 

 Now when compromise seems unreachable, tragedy sometimes follows. One of the most tragic innocents that should hit home for our country is the shooting in Charleston where nine lives were taken. Jared Sexton, an author who set out of his own political journey, makes a point to surely think about, “The only thing we can agree on is that on June 17, 2015, a twenty-one-year-old walked into the historic Emanuel AME Church in Charleston and killed nine of its members in cold blood” (31). Whether you are Conservative or Liberal, this is a situation that should be taken into consideration for we are “…standing in the middle of a polarized America where race and racism are constantly used to further divide…” (Sexton 37). There’s no compromise with racism, it is something that has existed in our nation for hundreds of years and it is something that is tearing it apart. Some people look at the Charleston shooting and have trouble looking at the bigger picture. This wasn’t just a coincidence of some random guy who decided to walk into a church and pull the trigger repeatedly. Take this thought from Sexton into deep consideration, “Americans are notoriously bad at putting events into context. Whether its caused by a deliberate muddying of reality by entrenched interests or simply a result of a weakening attention span, we find ourselves as a country continually missing the big, important picture. A nation forever losing the forest for the trees” (Sexton 29). Wake up America. It’s time to see the bigger picture. 

Adding to the harsh political climate, we live in an age today where the first thing we do to get updated on news is unlock our phones and check some sort of social media. The media of course does not cause the polarization that is occurring in our country; anyone would be naive to make such a point, but in no way does it help it. During the campaign process, you could pull up Twitter at any point of the day and see someone expressing what they believe in or snapping back at someone. We use the media in all the wrong ways. In Sounman Hong’s study on how Twitter is used within our government, an interesting fact is presented. It is proven that “Politicians with extreme ideological positions have more Twitter followers” (Hong). When thinking about the bigger picture, those who hold such strong ideals love to voice them so it makes perfect sense that “social media may contribute to heightened levels of political extremism” (Hong). 

Just the way information is presented on our televisions can be so different depending on what channel you tune into you. I guarantee you will be hearing two different sides of the story if you tune into Fox and then fifteen minutes later tune into CNN. We want to hear things the way we want to hear them because we are stuck on our ideologies want to listen to people who hold the same ones. In Jared Sexton’s memoir, in which I previously touched on, he made an awesome observation about the media while sitting on his couch one day. He remarks, “With the click of a button, one could dramatically alter how the world was being delivered to them. On one channel, injustice. On another, monsters needing slaying. In my hand was a cheap universal remote that’d probably been bought from the Wal-Mart down the street for five bucks, and it’d somehow become one of the most powerful devices in human history” (Sexton XI). Because of our different ideologies that separate us, we control how we hear things and how we want to process it. 

For someone to say that polarization isn’t something our nation struggles with is quite a bold statement and one that is frankly hard to argue, but Jonah Goldberg has no problem trying to bring this one up. Goldberg makes the bold statement in his argument, “Even on social issues, where there are certainly significant ideological differences, the two sides are rarely on opposite sides of the issue… Conservatives don’t seek to outlaw homosexuality or transgenderism. They don’t seek to ban women from the workforce” (Goldberg). So yes, Goldberg holds a valid point. His words are true, but we can’t forget issues like immigration, Confederate monuments, and abortion. It is simply not true to sit here and say that Conservatives and Liberals agree on these matters because the fact of the matter is, we wouldn’t be in such a tense political climate right now if the two sides agreed on these things. These issues are identity issues, or issues rooted in our morals, and that is what causes the divide. In his article from Stanford University, Matthew Gentzkow makes the statement that “Americans in 2016 are more politically divided than ever before.” If America wasn’t experiencing such a divide there might be less shootings, less ridiculous debates, and less racial tensions, but sadly these are all things that we are currently facing and struggling with as a country. It is visible through our self- reported ideologies, the way we vote, and how we simply see the other side. 

So, the question we ask ourselves as a country is: where do we go from here? Is there a way to heal, or are we stuck? In Jonathan Haidt’s TED Talk, he addresses these questions exactly. He makes the point that as a country we simply lack empathy. We struggle to open our minds and listen to the other side, and I will admit myself, I am guilty of this conduct. It is hard to hear someone disagree with you, but that is politics and often life. It is okay to not agree with someone, but we struggle today because Americans can’t let people express themselves. It is sad but true. Our country is capable of moving forward, but it is going to require time and effort, from both parties. Just one person making a difference can start all this time and effort. We are all different. We were all brought up in different families with different policy views. We all bring something different to the table. But the one thing we all do have in common is we are one nation, under God, and indivisible. So, wake up America and let’s piece our country back together! 
