American politics term reflection paper. Social Sciences Essay

American Politics
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
American Politics
In the last decade, there has been sharp divisions and palpable enmity among the public and elected leaders in the American political arena. In fact, the political divide has intensified more in President’s Trump administration than ever before. The divisions between the Democrats and Republican have been on the fundamental political subjects such as immigration, national security, governance, environmental protection, and race. According to a report by the Pew Research Center, the political rifts have widened more in the first years of Trump’s administration. The Democrats and Republicans are constantly drifting far more apart in terms of ideology than at any point in history. In essence, growing numbers of Americans from the two major political divide express highly toxic views of the conflicting party. As a result, polarization has risen to a considerate high level, reflecting in the personal lives and lifestyle of both the public and the elected officials.
The Americans’ identity and social lives have been entangled with partisan beliefs since many people are brainwashed to adopt the partisan standpoints. Today, public opinions are divided and argued more along partisan lines rather than along the line of gender, educational background, age, religion, and race. Trump’s administration has literally ushered in a new era of intense political polarization (Peele, Bailey, Cain, Peters, & Herbert, 2017). As the partisan opinion gap continues to widen the hostility between Democrats and Republicans also continue to escalate. The partisan divergence has grown beyond the realm of political debate, whereby the conflicting parties attack each other on personal matters. Individuals are subjected to physical assaults, online harassment, discrimination, and neglect because of their political stand (Peele, Bailey, Cain, Peters, & Herbert, 2017). In other words, there is zero political tolerance as opposing parties cannot stand each other even in the public. Social conflicts continue to increase as groups easily disagree on t...