Features

The 2020 new Vision

The United States and their political divide over the recent years

Mackenzie Shrum, Writer|May 29, 2021

The recent months have been filled by screaming voices asking for justice on both sides of the political spectrum. Fires have been started and not just literal fires made by angry people wanting change for their side. The fires are burning brighter than ever and each side of politics, right or left, is adding fuel to the flames that are spreading like wildfire over this nation.

Interview with Lily Jarosz, 2021 valedictorian and student activist

1. What do you personally believe caused the greatest political divide in 2020? I personally think what caused the greatest political divide in 2020 was the election. It seemed that people were either vehemently supporting one side or the other and the political commercials and horrific debates did nothing to help the situation.

2. Do you think things have got worse or better since the Black Lives Matter Protest held in Irwin last year? I think that things have definitely gotten better from a national perspective since the Black Lives Matter movement. There is still a lot of work to be done but we are seeing some accountability and pushes for reforms in the criminal justice system and when it comes to police.

3. Did you get a good glimpse of what the political divide looks like in our area based on what you saw while planning the protest? Yeah, and the image of it was not that pretty. People were definitely vehemently opposed to my protest, to the point that I got personally called by people and was told that I was disrupting the community. That hurt a little bit.

4. Do you believe that our area can be better somehow regarding the political divide? How do you think we change? I truly believe that this community can change, but in order to change, we must capitalize on our youth. A lot of the older folks in this community will never change their mind. But, we have plenty of youth that are currently politically unaligned and that could really be the change in the community if we begin to talk to them.

5. How do you think Norwin students can make a change to start to respect each other’s political opinions? I think that the best way to begin to respect others political opinions is just to establish a dialogue. Create safe spaces within the schools and within classes where people can share their views without being afraid of being criticized. Having these discussions and seeing the human being’s beliefs helps to establish that political maturity.

6.What was the worst case of political divide you have seen? The worst case of political divide that I have seen was when I planned the BLM protest. There was a gang of bikers at one point that were opposed to the protest and thus carried guns through the streets of Irwin. That was so unnecessary, especially because the whole purpose of that event was to bring love to the community.

Democrats and Republicans seem to be more at war than usual with all the national events occurring and hearing them so passionately debate one and another. It caused many to wonder how we

Democrats and Republicans More Ideologically Divided than in the Past as a country got this way when our motto as a country is ‘United we stand, divided we fall.’

America has a history of political division since the starting dates of this country. One of George Washington’s precedents was to not develop parties, which we did fairly quickly after he made the statement. The two party system now tends to be the major cause of the division in the United States.

The debate of Democrat vs. Republican started to grow when the parties seemed to become more extreme in nature. The 2016 election seemed to be a turning point with such split results. With Donald Trump winning the election, we Ideological Echo Chambers saw a turn in how drastic the parties can change.

After the 2016 election, politics became a moral dilemma, making politics far more divided. The United States started to put more emphasis on parties in the ways of it becoming someone’s personality. People avoid people of the opposite party, wearing merchandise of their party’s competitor, and not listening Compromise in the Eye of the Beholder to others if they disagreed with their opinions.

The 2020 election fueled more fires and made the division even wider. The main cause of action was the immediate dislike of the candidates from both parties and a phenomenon of a competition with who was the better candidate. More movements also created division between the two parties such as Black Lives Matter, All Lives Matter, Blue Lives Matter, Stop Asian Hate, etc. which highlighted the differences between the two parties. The two candidates running in 2020, Joe Biden and Donald Trump, w More Democrats Take Liberal Positions, More Republicans Take Conservative Positions ere now seen by the public as either a villain or hero that could solve the political issues that were coming to the forefront of America during the time of their campaigns.

The 2020 election ended with Joe Biden as the winner but this outcome was controversial and it created even more tension between the parties. Trump supporters didn’t believe the election was fair and not counted correctly while Biden supporters believed the opposite. This debate led to a riot at the Capitol on January 6, where Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in protest of the election. This event added perspective that both groups weren’t being heard by the other group by the left reacting to George Floyd’s death and the right reacting to Trump’s loss in somewhat comparable ways.

The United States seems to be settling down as of recently, but we still see the reflections of what has happened in previous years in our state, town, and even neighborhood. In the town of Irwin, we have had a Trump rally and we have had a Black Lives Matter protest as well.

Lily Jarosz helped organize the Black Lives Matter protest that happened in the very beginning of the movement that kicked into gear when George Floyd was killed by a police officer on camera. Lily described the image she got fr Democrats and Republicans More Ideologically Divided than in the Past om our community as a “not pretty image” and was hurt by the response of people that were opposed to the protest. Despite all this, she believes our community can improve.

“I think that the best way to begin to respect others’ political opinions is just to establish a dialogue. Create safe spaces within the schools and within classes where people can share their views without being afraid of being criticized,” said Lily Jarosz, senior at Norwin High School and organizer of the Irwin Black Lives Matter Movement. “Having these discussions and seeing the human being’s beliefs helps to establish that political maturity.”