A Country Divided

Politics today have polarized our countries beliefs more than they ever have. What rationality do we have left?

Today you are liberal or conservative. You must choose. You cannot be "in-between". How is this rational? No one truly believes/agrees with every point on the "conservative" side or the "liberal" side, and even if they did, they agree with a different passion on every topic. I know "liberals" who are pro-life; I know many "conservatives" who are pro-choice. I know a lot of conservative feminists and but also liberal white rich men. There is not a specific look to a conservative/liberal/libertarian, yet we stereotype and judge based on gender, class, race, and religion. Donald Trump is not a republican. Hillary Clinton is not a democrat. But yet, during the 2016 presidential election, they ran as such. Why?

We as humans feel the need to categorize everything; we make judgements. We do this because our brains cannot grasp all the intricacies to a single person, let alone many people, so we stereotype. Rational, right? But when it comes to politics, how is it rational to only have two parties? Two options? How do you vote for one of two people, one of whom you agree 20% with, and one of whom you agree 25% with? Is that extra 5% worth it? Is it their "political party" that makes you choose?

I remember taking an in-depth quiz in my IB history class that asked me how I felt about certain economic, social, and governmental issues, and then compared my rankings with each 2016 presidential candidate. I agreed with Donald Trump on roughly 50% of topics, which shocked me, scared me. Then again, I agreed with Hillary Clinton on 92% of the topics, which made me feel better. My point is, there IS overlap. We can't be one or the other. We're confusing, we contradict ourselves, our opinions are arbitrary and change over time based on our experience

And the worst part, we lose friends and burn bridges over political Facebook rants and Twitter arguments, when you probably agree on half of your political beliefs. Someone might be really passionate about gun control or abortion, but based on that one argument, you have contained them to that specific side. Why? Because we're irrational.