United States: Conflictual or Consensual?

American political culture is more conflictual, then consensual. A consensual political culture would
generally have agreements on how decisions are made, what issues should be addressed, and how. On the
other hand, conflictual political culture’s side on things agree that a divided culture can make it tough to
rule effectively , and political subcultures can erupt. American political culture definitely shows
characteristics of both conflictual and consensual ideals, but overall, it is more conflictual then consensual.
In the article, One Nation, Slightly, Divisible, by David Brooks, Brooks makes an important, and true point,
when he claims America is split between two ‘moral’ systems, where “Red America is traditional,
religious, self-disciplined, and patriotic. Blue America is modern, secular, self-expressive, and discomfited
by blatant displays of patriotism”. Both of these characteristics, as Brooks claims, forewarn that “America
is in the midst of a culture war”. In the interview, Crossfire: The great divide - red vs. blue states (part ⅔)
, at the time Gov. Rick Perry, of Texas was asked the question pertaining to a discussion previously had
on public regulations, if he “believes in fire codes”, Perry responded that he’s “for allowing those counties
to decide where they are, just like (he’s) for allowing the states to decide how to dispense healthcare
rather than letting one place in America decide how all of us are supposed to live”, Perry concluded with
“and that makes a lot of sense”. He’s trying to get his idea across, of taking away more federal power,
and giving it to the states, since he believes, like many in the republican party, that states should hold the
majority power, sense they know their communities best. But this tends to be an opposing argument to
those in the left wing. These contradicting ideals prove that America is in a more conflictual state, than a
consensual one, but this is not necessarily a bad thing.