The Polarization of Political America, Is A Pot for Catastrophe.

The other day in my Comparative Politics course, at Brandeis University, we were analyzing the way in which Civil Society mattered in fostering Democracy. Although this is not the focus of this piece in particular, it’s highly important in understanding the context of our conversation. As we looked at positions, such as those held by Robert Putnam is his work “Bowling Alone” ( a position that states that civil society will reinforce and create an environment, which is only exclusive to Democracy), we reflected over rival arguments — — one which used the rise of Nazi Germany in a particular German community, that was entrenched in Civil Society, as a counterargument.

Thus, in order to accurately understand the argument, we analyzed the factors that lead to Nazi Germany. They are as follows:

1. National Humiliation, due to defeat in World War 1
2. Economic Catastrophe in the 20s and 30s
3. Severe Political Polarization:

• The strongest political parties were at TWO POLES

4. The eruption of violence made the country receptive to a strong leader

As my professor lectured about these conditions, I couldn’t help but to have a “Shut the front door” moment, and sink deeply into my chair, as a horrendous realization dawned on me. Pre-Nazi Germany conditions, so deeply paralleled the position of America — — a yes, you are safe to assume, I was (and still am) deeply concerned. As to allow accurate and substantial support for my explanation, I’ll evaluate each condition independently:

1. National Humiliation: While we are far from the global warfare seen in “The Great War” , and we are not in the position of burden that Germany was forced to bare due to its status, on the side of the losing team, recent disasters have threatened the American sense of status. Since the World Trade Center attacks, our credibility as a super power and our ego as untouchable has consistently been called into question. For 11 years we searched for 1 individual responsible for multiple terroristic attacks, including the most deadliest to our country, sense Pearl Harbor — It took us 11 years to find this one guy responsible for such atrocities. Did we get him? Absolutely. Yet, the question still remained from the world, “How could the most notorious world superpower allow this individual to flee for so long”. Though never explicitly stated, in order to compensate for our inability to locate Osama Bin Laden , we thrust ourselves into Middle Eastern conflict. Thinking we were fighting terrorism, we handed military equipment to rebellious force, many of which who would turn on us and become our greatest current terroristic threat — — Isis. Yes, we supplied an abundance of military grade artillery, which has now been used to execute our own citizens. It’s nothing less than humiliating, in our appearance to the world.
2. Economic Crisis: A misconception is commonly taken that the effects of the 2008 recession has subsided, thus rendering this point invalid. As cited in Matt O’Brien, in the Washington Post, “The U.S. doesn’t face such a dramatic demographic decline, but productivity growth has been so feeble the past few years that, taken together with the Boomers hitting retirement age, our trend growth is probably a lot lower than it used to be,too.”(https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/05/05/is-the-u-s-economy-actually-in-a-recession/ ). What does this mean for you, other than me urging you to read that article? Well simple, whether you read that article or not you should be able to tell from the latter half of that statement, that our economy has still yet to reach its former capacity. That’s problematic, because as the industry in which we depend on continues to move toward technology, an unstable economy can make this transition disasterous.
3. Political Polarization: I don’t believe this needs an explanation, but I shall give one. Although, according to Gallup, only 28% of America identifies as Republican, 30% Democrat, and 39% Independent (Thank God!), these numbers look vastly different when asked for leaning positions, the way in which they also tend to vote (http://www.gallup.com/poll/15370/party-affiliation.aspx) Those numbers produced numbers of 42% Republican and 44% Democrat, thus the two controlling political forces in our nation are 2 public parties that are enormously polarized. As Democratic Presidential Nominees promote concepts reflective of Socalism arguably slightly communistic, and as Republican Presidential Nominees boast attitudes of hypernationalism and ideas reflective of fascist government, you cant help but to worry about our countries status. You would even more inclined to worry, if you were to know that the two Partisan Poles that existed in Germany before Hitler positions himself as dictator, were Communist/Socialistic vs Hypernationalistic. The hypernationalistic party won, in Germany that is.
4. The Emergence of Violence: In 2015 alone there have been a total of 4 mass shootings, which resulted in the deaths of 4 or more victims; 355 mass shootings, which has resulted in the injury of 4 or more victims. (http://www.sfchronicle.com/aboutsfgate/article/Four-or-353-The-number-of-mass-shooting-in-6683193.php). Furthermore, as tensions between police and citizens rage on, shots in the back, riots, and acts of violence has taken a hold on our country and entrenched it, into a state of despair.

Do you see the parallel and the problem?

It’s terrifying how similarly these factors align. Some will insist that, Germany maintained a culture that cultivated the rise of Nazism. To that, I would say NO, no it didn’t. Just like we are today, Germany was once flourishing Western Civilization, that represented a pennicle of culture. An emerging dictator, could not have been seen by anyone.

So what do we do? How do we prevent this from occurring. Understand, Im not saying that the United States will descend into a fascist or communist dictatorship, rather I’m saying we need to pay careful attention to our political society and how its structuring ourselves — — that is the real issue. Economic issues have come and gone, so has violence, and national humiliation will subside — — what is a problem, though, is this partisan culture that has developed within the American ideology. At the moment, since the reformation of the Union, American’s political and party lines are the most polarized they have ever been.

This is problematic as this partisan divide is cultivating unhealthy extremism and radical polarization, and both sides are extinguishing democratic philosophy. This ideology can not continue and is not a proper atmosphere for democratic ideals — — they present imminent dangers, as seen in the past. The fact that these comparisons can serve and paralleled can be observed in both party front runners, should serve as a clear awakening that the partisan split in this country, is taking us down a dangerous path.

We can’t eliminate the economic crisis of 2008 from happening, we can’t stop our humiliating decisions, and we cant erase the violence which has occurred — — what we can do is call attention to the on going problem, plaguing the situation. The Partisan gap continuously being reinforced. It’s time to end this partisan hold on our Congress and our Country, we can not allow the Partisan ignorance to push us into a pit from which we can not return.

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