Reflection Week #6

I went to an event earlier today that was part of the All American Weekend schedule titled "An Inside Look at the 2020 Election." It was an AU Ed Talk and was styled in the form of a panel discussion moderated by Betsy Fischer Martin, the current Executive Director of the Women & Politics Institute at AU, and consisted of Michael Steele, a political analyst for MSNBC and the former chairman of the RNC, Robert Costa, a reporter for The Washington Post, and former political analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, Amy K. Dacey, the executive director of The Sine Institute for Politics & Policy at AU and former CEO of the DNC, and Chris Donovan, the executive editorial producer for ABC News.

The panel discussed many things, including the impeachment proceedings of Trump, the importance of states with early primaries, and the different democratic candidates. However, the topic that most piqued my interest was the discussion of the partisan divide in politics in our country. This was brought on by a very enthusiastic Trump supporter in the audience who felt the need to interject his own thoughts over the panelists' commentary. Steele was speaking while the Trump supporter was making himself known and so he called him out, saying that we can't act like Trump because that's not going to do any good. He said that there's something wrong with the current system and that it's up to us to do something about it. Steele also mentioned that we as a nation have gotten to the point where talking about Trump creates a gut reaction, be it good or bad, and we can't have a conversation with people that hold different views than us anymore.

This commentary led to a longer discussion about the polarization in our country and how the political climate has changed so drastically in that regard over the years. It made me think about an experience I've had over the past four years that I think has personally addressed political polarization in my life. Every summer since freshman year of high school I've attended the Conference on National Affairs, CONA, which is a government conference where high school students from across the country meet to debate mock federal-level policy proposals. At CONA, I've had the opportunity to meet a range of people from different backgrounds and who hold varying opinions. By simply listening to all the debates, I've been able to widen my understanding of our government and open myself to new ideas that I hadn’t necessarily considered before. And my favorite thing about CONA is that it provides an extremely welcoming and friendly environment—if you have a debate with someone in committee, you might end up sitting down with them for a meal and have a great time. It's really one big family. 

I wish that many more people in our country got the chance to experience something like CONA. Being in such an informative and welcoming environment really helps to combat negative stereotypes of people with differing views than oneself and bridge the gap that our two-party system has created. Madison was really onto something in Federalist 10 when he talked about the dangers of factions. Unfortunately, we have two rather large factions in American politics today—Democrats and Republicans. While these two parties were founded with the best interests of the American public in mind, they are doing exactly the opposite and only dividing America more.