A Country Full of Conflict

American political culture is more conflictual than consensual. Different groups of people with opposite beliefs and opinions have been clashing with each other for years on what to do when the country has to elect a new president into office, or what solution to go with when the country hits a problem, and many others. These arguments should be handled peacefully and civilized but are sadly not, with people from both sides constantly hating and throwing punches at the other party. Every single law passed or decision made has always had different ideas put into it, and a divided vote taken place to decide the outcome.

Also, this diversion within the country makes it hard to rule as a president because of all the different ideas being thrown at him/her. The overload of commands by the people leaves the government ineffective and slow, not really getting anything done without a well structured vote by Congress. Obama makes this clear in the YouTube video titled, "Crossfire: The great divide - red vs. blue states (part 1/3)", when he says that his priority was to gain as many republicans as possible, to make things a little easier on him when trying to make decisions. He obviously did not want to only make Democrats happy while he was president, and rather do things that benefit both parties of the Democracy. 

David Brooks also knew about this diversion in America in his article, "One Nation, Slightly Divisible" when he talks about the diversity in race with both red states and blue states. He said that in Montgomery County (Blue States), 60% of the population is white, while also having 15% black, 12% Hispanic, and 11% Asian. But, in Franklin County (Red States), the population is 95% white, with almost no other races. These differences show how different the two sides are in terms of letting others in, as well as how they treat them.

America is more split than it is united, with an argument raging around every corner. I do not think there really is a great solution to this, because there will always be two different parties with lots of different ideas and opinions being spread around the country. The best thing we could do as a country to try and handle the situation is have a single representative come up and tell the others peacefully what their state wants, so that there is less screaming and violence and more decisions made and benefits for the people. A civilized and organized democracy is always a better path than a violent and divided one, but that is a long way ahead of America at this point.