Let Me Explain Polarization

If there's anything that all Americans can pretty much agree on, it's that the country is at war with itself. (It's literally the stop hitting yourself meme). We all collectively groan at it, and compromise between the political left and right is almost impossible when we turn our heads and start yelling at each other.

I'm not going to claim I'm an expert on political human psychology, and I'm not going to preach that everybody should just calm down and take a chill pill, because we all know that saying that doesn't actually do anything. The good news is that there is actual stuff we can do. Hope really isn't lost yet.

I will talk about why people who want to entertain both sides of issues don't get represented in politics, though. Say you're an aspiring politician. You have views from both the left and right, and you're going to start a campaign for mayor, for example. You need money for your campaign, and having the support of more major politicians with connections would be nice.

The only restaurant where connections get served up is a political party. You have to choose one, or it's going to be nigh impossible to run your campaign. Most normal people just give up at this point (or run a completely unsuccessful campaign), but some just decide to get rid of all their views and join the massive polarized crowd for their career opportunities.

So not only is the system selecting candidates that refuse to listen to the other side, but it's also pointing and saying "Greedy opportunists, I choose you". *Throws PokeBall*

Then we wonder why so many politicians are corrupt.

This is a positive feedback loop: the less moderates get represented, the more polarized parties become, and the more polarized parties become, the less moderates get represented.

It's stupid and if it stops, America will be thanking the people who made it happen for the rest of time. You'll be heroes. Seriously.

So how do we fix it? First of all, we need to make sure moderate candidates don't get KOed in closed primary elections. When primary elections only allow registered Democrats or Republicans to vote in them, they make the voting pool veer farther to the left or right, meaning that they'll select more extreme candidates. To fix it, we need to open up our primary elections to independent voters, so that they have a voice in the primaries, just like in the general election.

We also need to fricking repeal Citizens United once and for all, which I talked about last post, so that corporations have less control over campaign funding. This makes it so that parties can't hold their now-much-more-useless corporate connections over moderates' heads during the election cycle. If candidates actually have to get most of their funding from individuals, then they'll be forced to listen to moderates, who will actually be holding the anvil over candidates' heads.

Independent candidates might not actually need a party to have a legitimate chance anymore. Let's give them the fair playing field they deserve.

Another problem, specifically in presidential races, is the fact that the Electoral College is winner-take-all. TA candidate who gets 40% of the votes in some state is going to ignore that state as a result, since their opponent will get 100% of the votes in the Electoral College.

On the other hand, if 40% of the EC votes were given to that candidate, the candidate might actually start caring about that state. They'll have to start taking opposing points of view seriously, they'll have to because they'll lose if they don't.

And as a final message to all those annoying hipsters preaching about "having meaningful discussions" and "trusting the other side": if you care about this issue so much, then do something to actually fix it. Awareness campaigns won't do that. Fixing the system will.

Frankly, politicians don't care about your preaching. They're not going to until you force them. The first step was reading this thing. The second is going out, talking about it, changing the laws, doing anything to help. Go. Make the world a better place.