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.

America, Conflictual?! Of Course

Political culture, a set of commonly shared beliefs, values, and norms, has been argued to be either conflictual or consensual. Based on how our government has come about we can see that it is really conflictual. We are made of all different races and backgrounds which in itself can create conflict. On top of these every has ideas of their own based on their upbringing.

Our country is under constant conflict when it comes to the two specific parties. There may be views on some ideas that are the same, but really there are more that are different. One of these major differences brought out by David Brooks in "One Nation, Slightly Divisible" is the view on education and how much education is needed. In blue states, at least half got a degree in college while 91% had a high school diploma. On the other hand, red states had much less education. Only about 12% had college degrees and 69% had graduated from high school. With this much of a gap between the parties there is less similarities between views. Since the blue states have much more education they may see certain points that the red states bring out to be dumb creating a separation within the country.

Not only do the people create this division, but the media has a lot to attribute to it. In the political cartoon up above we see that the news reports for both sides call each other for giving out false information. Since they appeal to different crowds they must help their supporting audience to expose their more important views, such as ideas on gay marriage, abortion, and immigration issues. The cartoon reveals how different the parties views are since they both say that each others facts are really lies. All in all the two groups actually are agreeing, but in the way that they are both wrong in each others mindset.

From the video "A Bad Map We See Every Presidential Election" we can see the division within the country. This division can even lead down to the little towns in each state. Some of the images shown during the video depicted that there was a clear separation between the blue and red states. Although there were many states that do vote for a certain party does not guarantee a win. It all depends on the electoral votes in the end. Take for example, Massachusetts although it is a tiny state they have more than double the amount of electoral votes than Montana.

I would have to agree with Justine to some extent that everyone is here for the same purpose no matter what race or ethnicity. But if we really look into how Americas government works we can see that the arguments and division is sometimes what helps America to get things done such as creating compromise. 

Conflictual America

This map shown above is the results from the 2016 election. Before getting into that, let me explain what the red states versus blue states even mean. Our country is mostly split into two very different political parties called the democracts, represented by blue, and the republicans, red. During this presidental election, Hilary Clinton was running for the democracts and Donald Trump was running for the republican side. So, the map shows which state as a whole voted for which candiate. This is just one clear example of how America is more os a conflictual country than consentual. To decide our president, people have to choose between two very different people.

Being a conflictual country means that the country is very split on many issiues and it also means that the citizens like to group themsleves into two major groups. Most people become very closed minded once they decide the group they fall into and many sterotypes form.  David Brooks wrote an article titled "One Nation, Slightly Divisble" in which he describes the differences between a democrat and republican. He claimed that republicans are "racist and homophobic" and democrats are "modern, secular, self-expressive and discomforted by blantant displays of patriotism". Some reubplicans might take offense ot being called racist and homophobic and Brooks clearly had a democratic bias when writing the article. This shows how, when people fall into groups, they ted to become close-minded and not care what the other side has to say. To Brooks and some other democrats, they may really think that republicans are racist. But, Republicans may disagree. Everything has two or more sides. All political issiues do and all disagrements do. People just have the tendancy to congregate and group with others that have the same opinions as them, and thats how political parties are formed.

In the video, "Donald Trump's Victory Speech", Trump says that "now its time for America to bind the wounds of division". He means that during the race for presidency, Americans split, more than ever. They chose a side and stuck to it and did not listen to the other side and still may not. The President was saying that he wants the nation united now. But, being divided is something that will always be a facor of the United States.  People have opinions and people will have arguments. Having conflicts and division is just a normal part of American government. Even the founding fathers wanted the country to be split because thats the only way a large republc could work. If people argued, there would be compromise and soulutions will be made.

So, America is conflictual and there is no way to change it without taking away freedom. Liberty is one of the elements in american culture and the most important one. Without it, Ccitizens would not have the right to speak freely or vote or do many things that they want to. But liberty also come with disagrements and conflicts which is the foundation of America's government.

More Conflictual than Consensual

Anytime politics are discussed about, there is an argument on who agrees or who disagrees with certain topics.  American political culture is definitely more conflictual than consensual. The division is between Red America and Blue America, also known as Democrats and Republicans.  There are many differences between the two. For example, the difference in the average household income, the difference in college degrees and high school diplomas, and ethnic diversity.  The blue states population of diversity is "60 percent is white, 15 percent is black, 12 percent is hispanic, and 11 percent is asian"(Brooks). For the red states, "95 percent of the population is white"(Brooks).  This major difference in diversity can and will cause conflict in voting. The more diverse the states are the more they will vote blue and of course the less diverse vote republican. In the voting maps you can't tell which states are diverse and which aren't, but you can tell which are republican and democrats.

For the election, states are colored  based on the vote for each president. The map shown every election is made to show which president won for each state.  The creators of the map chose to focus more on "Geographic accuracy over electoral importance"(Vox). These maps are hard to understand how the states really voted.  Especially to see the number of people that were white and voted for what party compared the ethnic population of the people that voted. Because their differences in diversity the government is conflicting.

    

Consensual or Conflictual?

American political culture is more conflictual than it use to be. In the 20th for the presidential election there were around 20 landslide elections depending on how you define it. That means that 4 out of every 5 elections were landslides in which one candidate completely crushed the other sometimes getting 500 electoral votes. In the 21st century the greatest difference in electoral votes was 192. In "Crossfire: The great divide - red vs. blue states (part1/3) they argue over the minimum wage. The minimum wage is an argument over Laissez-Faire. Laissez-Faire in English translates to let (people) do (as they choose) in policy it is a government where it interferes as little as it can letting things take their own course. It's usually associated with the a freer less regulated market lower taxes, and more industries in the private sector. They argue over the practicality of the minimum wage and if it encroaches on the rights of the business owner to much. the argument is if the government is supposed to be limited than the minimum wage is an overstepping of the governments authority. The minimum wage is a large topic in America showing one of its divides. At the end of the 2016 election Donald Trump won before this his side had been saying the election was rigged and unfair, at the end those apposing him started the Not My President, they protested his victory and stated they would never accept him as their leader. Neither sides would be content with the outcome unless they would be the victors. This goes against another one of the five ideas agreed upon in the American Culture, Populism. Populism is the concern for the ordinary people. On both sides neither cared about the ordinary peope they both only cared about winning. Another divide is along moral lines, in David Brooks  "One Nation, Slightly Divisible" He says that " America is divided between two moral systems". In religion regarding the 2000 election  59% of those who attended religious services weekly voted for bush 39% voted for Gore. 56% of those who don't attend religious services weekly voted for Gore and 39% voted for Bush

Why the the US is more conflictual than consensual

The United State is more in disagreement over daily political issues based on the two political parties and whom they side with. It is very hard for the two parties to come to consensus because no body listens to each other. The people no longer debate and just split themselves based on beliefs, economic issues, and personal morals. The divide of the people tends to have totally different lives and views of each other. "Red America tend to live on farms or small towns or small cities far away from the coast... people in Red America do with motors... In Red America churches are everywhere...they have QVC, the Pro Bowlers tour and hunting... Walmarts are massive" (Brooks). The Red is stereotyped as country and more traditional. They tend to want things not to change and be the same as it was in olden days, they want original government. But Blue America is tended to be smarter, less religious, in shape, live in big cities, and more successful. The Blue cares more about the people in the societies then the traditional reds. The Blue wants change to be brought upon for good of the community. A lot of the controversy over the two groups is the problem of disagreement and lack of communication over the problems. Both of them feel as if their voices aren't heard and that their voices doesn't matter. Instead of working together they are fighting each other to see who wins and whose ideas will work out in the long run. The two divides are more of a competition between each other than civil disagreement on ideology. This is why the U.S. is more conflictual than consensual.

American political culture is conflictual because many factions are disagreeing and fighting. The main conflict of the United States of America is that of the Republicans and Democrats. These two groups have huge differences as showcased in One Nation, Slightly Divisible by David Brooks. As stated in the text, Republicans are, “traditional, religious, self-disciplined, and patriotic”, while Democrats are, “modern, secular, self-expressive, and discomfited by blant displays of patriotism” ( Brooks 3). These two groups have two completely different opinions on how the country should be run. An example of this is how Democrats believe abortion and homosexuality should be legal, but Republicans view them as inhumane and morally wrong. Another example of these two parties having differing opinions is Democrats want a strong central government while Republicans desire more state power. It can be argued that these two sides are the modern day federalists and anti-federalists.

This ongoing conflict has resulted in nearly the same electoral map every election. This map is misleading because it shows which side won which states, but it disregards the number of electoral votes each state has. As observed by Vox, “So while this tells you that Romney won Montana, it doesn’t tell you how much that victory doesn’t matter.” The fact that America is a conflictual culture supports that the electoral college should be outlawed. Elections should go by popular vote because of how important the presidential candidate is for each party. A personal example is a Wolcott Republican who disagrees with the majority of the state but still wants their vote recognized in the election in order to see their political ideology displayed in the office. Also in the Crossfire, the Illinois governor wants Texas to raise the minimum wage like them, but Texas argues this isn’t needed because 95% of their jobs aren’t minimum wage. This further supports the enormity of the split between the left and the right. These specific examples prove America is a conflictual culture.