The Polarization Of American Politics - Essay Example

Sur Memo 5 The readings of the week focus on the polarization of American politics. According to the book, “Culture War: The myth of a polarized America”, it becomes apparent that there is no political polarization in the United States. The segregation of America into blue and red states aids in strengthening the perception of non-polarization of the American politics. Views of people in both states tend to be similar on common issues, such as the fiscal policy. Polarization is only evident among the elites in the society, but not the mass public.

A weakness of the argument is that the basis of segregation of states into blue and red states. It is not realistic to elude that everyone in the blue states are democrats and vise versa. In the second paper authored by Saunders and Abramowitz; with the title,”is polarization a myth?” supports the view that America is polarized. This is based on the ideological and party identification. In this paper, it noted that politics form the yardstick to polarization. A weak point in this paper is that the perceptions are based on individuals rather than percentage of masses that hold different views.

In the final paper, “Rich State, Poor State, Red State, Blue State: What’s the Matter with Connecticut?” the pattern of voting forms the basis of the argument. The paper argues that republicans have more support from the rich while democrats have more support from the poor. Perception on the argument changes preceding this week’s discussion. The argument should focus more on the impact of polarization to the country rather than finding out if America is polarized. I believe that having the knowledge on the impacts of polarization should be prioritized to an analysis of the polarization of America.