Polarization

One of the saying commonly attributed to statements like this above headline is to say “Captain Obvious” is speaking. We all already know this – that debate becomes absurd when dealing with identity politics. But do we really stop to consider just how widely destructive the use of identity politics actually is to running a representative republic?
And does the absurdity confine itself to identity politics? Is this manifestation of elitism restricted only to one political party in the United States?

We hear angry complaints from Trump's enemies that he is overstepping his authority, and they are right to say so. They didn't say the same of Obama when he was behaving in many of the same ways, but they did when Bush was President. The same is true of Trump supporters who were outraged at Obama, happy with Bush, angry with Clinton, etc. The problem with this inconsistency should be apparent, if not obvious. But is the problem rooted in the parties, their members, or our secession of authority in the first place?

Attacks and intimidation, it seems, have become a part of American political life, but America’s political polarization buries a counterintuitive insight: Culturally and aesthetically, the left and the right appear quite different, yet both of their political philosophies are rooted in authoritarianism.