These days almost everything has turned political. Whether it is the act of wearing masks, the news channels you watch, or a woman’s right to do what she wants with her body, there are always political conflicts, and those conflicts are getting worse. Furthermore, the political divide is ravaging through communities, leaving them extremely biased against each other.

Modern-day politics has not only influenced the division between Americans today, but it’s also causing many more problems. With school shootings, homicides, gun violence, police brutality, systemic racism, and sexism, America is seeing more problems than ever before. But instead of recognizing the problems and working together to solve them, Americans are taking strong stances on opposite ends of the spectrum leaving, no room for negotiation. Congress is a prime example. With the Democrats in control of the House of Representatives and the Republicans in control of the Senate, it is a wonder how anything gets done. President Trump has had to strong-arm many of his policy actions through Executive Orders, which is also another point of contention in partisan politics. It’s ridiculous.

This is largely due to the conflict between political parties. Emboldened by radical statements made by modern-day politicians, Americans are motivated to hold strong positions on complicated issues, ignoring expert opinion and backlash. Even now, President Trump is calling the Democrat Party radical, left-wing socialists, fanning the flames with his divisive rhetoric. In the past, these strong political views were not as much of a problem because politics was kept where it belonged and did not intrude into everyday life. But today, politics seems almost as if it is life itself, and it shouldn’t be. This intrusion of politics into the private sphere is also influenced by political figures taking to social media platforms, such as Twitter.

If causing many problems in the country wasn’t enough, politics is also resulting in Americans unconsciously judging those with different views. I personally often catch myself creating a mental image of someone based on their political affiliation without even knowing them. And this isn’t the case with just me. I see people do it every day with very few actually catching themselves in the act.
It’s simply wrong to be prejudiced towards someone with a different view. They might just have a different perspective, and no opinion is really incorrect. Although you may think that their view may not be as educated as yours, it’s incorrect to judge them for it. Rather, there are more effective ways to get your point across and vice versa.

For example, you could have a conversation. Most disputes can be solved with a simple conversation between individuals or a small group rather than an attack on a generalized group of people. A small group allows everyone to be heard and allows for less generalization of a person’s views based on the majority opinion. People can also solve disputes by finding common ground. Often times, politically driven parties rush to extremes without negotiating at all. A simple common ground where both values are incorporated would be another solution to lessening the political divide.