The Divided States of America

The Divided States of America

Political Culture

Political culture is what the people of the USA are made of. It is the common beliefs, standards, and values the country is built on in relation federalism, the relationship between the state and federal governments. 

Conflictual or Consensual?

America is built on the idea of factions fighting for compromises and power. The key word there is fighting. America is divided as a whole, it is a melting pot of baking soda and vinegar. What may be fun to watch for some is torture for others. While the people play around with the pot, watching the science-y spectacle of fizzing and foaming, they forget to make something out of it. They keep saying, "Let's do that again" and they never move on. They never figure out how to grow out of it. American political culture is conflictual because there is no one set of beliefs, there is no one set of values; the aggressive individuality of the common people can not be calmed, and the factions can not be destroyed.

One great example of a conflictual political culture is from "One Nation, Slightly Divisible", by David Brooks. He explains how America is simply red states and blue states that don't want to be near each other. He states, "America is divided between two moral systems. Red America is traditional, religious, self-disciplined, and patriotic. Blue America is modern, secular, self-expressive, and discomforted by blatant displays of patriotism". To explain that, religion and secular will be used. Imagine an atheist and a christian meet each other. Based on the idea that they need to fight and create compromise, they begin to argue, because that's what Americans like to do the most. The atheist repeatedly tries to prove that there is no God, and the theist repeatedly tries to prove there is a God. They are doing nothing but bickering. They can not make a compromise because they're beliefs are completely opposite, like Democrats and Republicans, like liberals and conservatives, like vegans and meat eaters. What they may compromise on are aspects of the two beliefs. But not everyone is going to be able to make a compromise exactly the same or at all. It is a preference spectrum. Americans are all going to have different feelings and opinions, and they have the freedom to express them in many ways. 

Well, there must be something that America agrees on, right? According to www.npr.org on the article "A Nation Divided: Can We Agree On Anything?", there are a few things. It states, "More than 90 percent of Americans believe in God or in some form of universal power, according to a 2008 study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

More than 90 percent of Americans believe that future generations should be prepared for the ramifications of living in a global society, according to a 2007 report by NAFSA: Association of International Educators.
More than 90 percent are proud of the members of the U.S. military who served in Iraq, a CNN/ORC International poll finds.
More than 90 percent of Americans agree that the development of good math skills is essential to success in life, an Ogilvy PR survey revealed in 2010". Well, yes, there are things most people agree on, but at what point does that represent America? There are still 10 percent of people who don't agree with those things, there is still conflict, and in order for America to function well, there must be disagreements so that there can be compromises. There is no compromise here, just agreement. Remember, a conflictual political culture is one "in which different groups (or subcultures) clash with opposing beliefs and values". This is the idea of how America is run. In the above example, there is a majority agreement, but there is still conflict. Look at all of the other aspects of politics that don't have any agreements yet. This is only a tiny, tiny portion of what Americans seem to believe. There is an extraordinary amount of conflict in comparison to agreement and compromise. If there was more compromise and agreement than conflict, then there wouldn't be this argument (literally).

On another blog, Justine Lewicki writes that America is brought together by the American Dream. The reason she is both right and wrong is because the American dream is, in reality, different for everybody. The idea is to be who you want, and accomplish your dream. There are 325.7 million people alive in America. That is 325.7 million conflicting dreams. Even the "American Dream" is conflictual, emphasizing the idea of individuality among everyone. People are greedy, and with greed comes conflict about stuff. Everyone has or will have conflict about stuff. Period.

On Youtube, there is a video titled "Donald Trump Victory Speech" and one can see on the bottom of the screen the division of America. Roughly, 57 million to 56 million. There is one example of a conflictual political culture.

To close, here is a graph about how much we hate ourselves.

There is quite enough evidence to suppose that America's political culture is one that prefers to fight than to make agreements. There are endless amounts of disagreements one can have with another in America, but there is not nearly enough compromising.