• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!
  • Welcome to our archives. No new posts are allowed here.

Voter polarization

IceteaGreen

DP Veteran
Joined
Jan 5, 2006
Messages
35
Reaction score
6
Location
Belgium
Gender
Male
Political Leaning
Moderate
Hi there !

I don ‘t know if I’m in the right section to post this, but following the US 2012 Election is a good illustration of the question I wanted to ask.

As an European, I have always been fascinated by The USA. Having visited it twice, I was charmed by the place and the people there. Can’t wait to go back once my kids start walking and saying more than ‘bla buh boh’…

Looking at the passionate (to say the least) posts here, I have a serious question: is the polarization I see here generalized in the population? I know that the interwebs loop tends to skew a bit the impression, but it seems that for each side, the other side winning an election would mean an absolute end-of-the-world catastrophe of biblical proportion! Each candidate is, for the other side, the hypothetical offspring of Cruella deVille and Sauron (let’s see if someone get the reference!). And I haven’t seen any of the TV ads that looks …interesting to put it mildly.

Taking my personal case as an example, I generally vote to the right, and am married to an absolute left-leaning woman. We sometimes playfully ‘insults’ ourselves with “nanny state lover” and “you filfthy greedy bastard who only care for the rich!”. I am an atheist and my wife is catholic. We sometimes have heated discussion during election time, but otherwise we get along just fine. Would it be possible in the USA?

So is the general US population a good reflect of what I see here or am I dead wrong?
 
In our day to day lives, people I know sort of avoid discussing partisan politics beyond just current affairs if you want to remain friends and quite a few others really do not care one way or the other.
 
The simple answer to your question is no. Most people don't give a hoot about politics or politicians or the political process. they just want to go on with their lives as happily and as best they can. Some vote some don't and many who do vote probably do it on gut instinct rather than informed decisions.

Alot of what you are hearing on sites like this are the ardent supporters and believers in one or more political party, philosophy or concept. Even the true moderates and independants have thier passions regarding certain issues. Although in many cases I consider myself a moderate I cannot be a full member because my strongist held beliefs are to the center left. So I call myself a moderate liberal.

The verbal violence you get from these sites are the product of many years of percieved abuse or neglect by one side or the other. It is very similar to the dialogue that occurred from 1854 until the beginning of the Civil War. As the verbal violence increases each side or sides become more and more intrenched in THIER view and belief system until that is the only possible one ever. Our country was built on compromise and cooperation it is a sad reflection on our national image and indeed our world image to be seen as seemingly school yard children who can't get along. But that is not America. It is the foam at the top of the melting pot.
 
In our day to day lives, people I know sort of avoid discussing partisan politics beyond just current affairs if you want to remain friends and quite a few others really do not care one way or the other.

I think this is the most accurate assessment...

To your point, politics are becoming more polarized, but it is also putting more people off... Most people in the US actually are undecided or have decided to check out...

No one really wants to discuss politics, and in general avoid any kind of disagreement...

It's becoming worse, too, with the digital age... With all the social networking sites, chatrooms, etc. people are creating all sorts of ways to communicate that actually distance themsevles from society or warp what that society is into unsustainable entities...

You get to block people who disagree with you or make you mad. People have to have an accepted friend relationship to contact you. Language is restricted so you can't speak honestly and freely. People use the anonimity and create fake personas from a distance and take advantage of others. People are releasing all sorts of private information that ought to be kept that way and it gets people in trouble. Others are trying to share information with some that then gets out to far too many people. People walk around avoiding talking to the people around them and instead type or play games with their phones.

Under this strange society, instant polls then start measuring the worth of different things, despite the ability to skew the results by voting more than once, and that these polls only get the answers of those who were exposed to them and willing to take the time to respond. Also, the feelings of the general public are consulted far too often for decisions they're not even the least bit qualified to represent.

I hate the way this world is being taken and American society is falling apart from within...


That I think is why so many people are so adamant about things in this election... at times it can really feel like it is this way or a complete collapse of society...

Most liberals think GWB and the bible thumpers would ruin the world... Most conservatives see liberals lack of morality and irresponsibility as something that would ruin the world... In truth, there ought to be a balance in between that we could reach...

However, at election time, there is no such balance... because it is the only time to advance people of your political pursuasion to power... so you want everyone who supports that ideology in, regardless...


That's one of the reasons I am such a heavy supporter of Mitt Romney... because he is truly one of the people that is center-right... and has worked with people of all sides, and is a candidate who can reach that balance... which makes him pretty unique in the political world...

Unfortunately, you don't get to run on a center platform these days, the way it currently stands, you have to get the nomination of a major party to win the election, and in order to do so, you have to appeal to those on the right or those on the left, and hope enough independents on either side will come along with you...

Romney, when he started was winning heavily with independents... To get the party nomination, he went right to appease the party... and now he has lost a good share of independents... and since then the race has tightened up and tilted slightly to Obama...

If Mitt Romney would've stayed in the middle.... he would've had this thing wrapped up long ago... although, if Romney had stayed in the middle, he wouldn't be being spoken about right now, because he wouldn't have gotten the Republican nomination...

That is the trouble... right now its left vs right and right vs left... and everyone else squeezed out...
 
I think we are that polarized. It is an overused expression, but I really think our nation is at a crossroads as to what it will be in the future. The left wants a quasi socialist government similar to many in Europe while the right wants a corporate state with theocratic elements. Both choices are equally repugnant to the other side. There really is no middle ground to compromise on many key issues anymore. You can't compromise on abortion when one side considers it murder and the other an essential right. The two sides also have a level of hostility toward each other that I haven't seen before and it appears to be increasing. Conservatives consider 47% of the population to be nothing more than leeches and I can say I have an equal level of contempt for people born with a silver spoon in their mouth like Romney and those I consider their lapdogs. In all seriousness I'm not sure the best solution wouldn't be to consider becoming two countries. Most of the divide I've seen that isn't along class lines is regional with the more sparsely populated and rural states aligned against the more urbanized ones not entirely unlike the one that existed during our last period of major internal conflict.
 
Americans are broken up in the following groups:

15% Democrate party
15% Republican party
15% Independant party
55% Don't give a crap party
 
Americans are broken up in the following groups:

15% Democrate party
15% Republican party
15% Independant party
55% Don't give a crap party

I think we should rename it the none of the above party and have a massive campaign drive to get members then we would be in the majority all the time. (joke)
 
Back
Top Bottom