Polarization and Gun Reforms 

Democracy, which means, “rule by the many”, is such a simple word but it can have more than one interpretation. Around the world, one will find governments that apply a democracy and at the same time are not being democratic. Many people have in mind that democracy only needs to be applied once a year, when it is time to vote. However, democracy gives people the power to participate in the decisions that will affect directly their lives. Here in the United States (U.

S.) people have been finding their voice in the politics of the country more and more over the years. Could we considerate this an example of a healthy democracy?

Well, throughout history, the U.S. democracy was put to the test. From the Civil wars to the attacks that happened on the September 11, liberal democracy has been questioned. However, the U.S. democracy has always proved how strong it is. Even though political experts consider the U.

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S. democracy healthy, there are still points that need to be worked out (Galston). In this paper, two aspects that somehow have a negative impact in the health of the American democracy will be discussed. Political polarization and gun reforms are problems that generate a lot of controversy and discussion here in the U.S.

First, one should recognize that the U.S. nation is polarized. Today, there are two political parties that have a lot of different ideologies, the Republicans and the Democrats. This division has not only affected the way that politics is done, but has also interfered in the way that people will act and think.

People are not talking openly about politics with people from the other party because there is not an open mind or even patience when it comes to understand each other’s opinions. After the U.S. elections in 2016, the majority of Americans from the two parties got into fights (arguments) just because each one of them strongly believe that their party’s policies are better than the other. The Pew Research Center, collected data that showed that “45% of Republicans and 41% of Democrats think the other party is so dangerous that it is a threat to the health of the nation” (McConnell at. all). People are not only disagreeing about politics, they are judging other people’s personality based on which party they support. This phenomenon is called affective polarization that has been changing people’s interactions outside politics. People’s bias has increased exponentially when it comes to separate what the politics views are with what they are currently living. For example, Republican politics defend that climate change is not a thing, and there are people out there currently experiencing the effects of climate change, but do not assume just because they are Republicans. It has also affecting the economic interaction between people from a different party. According to the group grab your Wallet, boycotts have been happening to companies such as Macy’s and L.L. Bean because they have a connection with Trump’s administration (McConnell at. all).

Another problem associated with polarization, is when a government is divided it slows the legislative process. Polarization and political processes both stems each other because of the influence that one has on the other. Political processes can be defined as the way that politics use rules/laws to implement something. Polarization pushes American politics to lose the capacity to accept that the idea proposed by the other party is a good idea, and as consequence the process of executing new bills has dropped along the years. According to Tyler Hughes and Deven Carlson, “divided government slows down the legislative process by 60 days, on average (Hughes at. all). These policymaking delays are a result of a political strategy or process that one party will use to slow the pace of a bill suggested by the other party because they do not agree and also because they are polarized, creating a vicious cycle. Polarization affects political processes, as well as those political processes will increase the level of polarization.

People blame polarization as the main obstacle when it comes to political reforms, which brings up my second problem that is affecting America’s political health, the gun reforms. Why are gun reforms affecting the political health of America? Well, Republicans and Democrats are once again on opposite sides of it. Basically Democrats do not want to end the legalization of guns, however, they seek for a more strict access to guns. Democrats believe that guns laws and background checks are not effective enough, but in the other hand Republicans do not see a real problem with it. This divergence of ideas is associated with the fact that there are lines that divide the country geographically and politically. Democrat supporters tend to live in the big cities areas of the country while Republican supporters tend to be from smaller and rural areas. According to a study performed by the Washington post, which analyzed data that involved gun deaths from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, they concluded that murders’ using a gun and mass shooting usually occurs more often in the big cities, while in the rural and smaller areas, suicide with guns is more usual (Van Dam). The interesting fact is that the number of suicides in the country is higher that the numbers of homicides or mass shootings. So why do Republicans do not agree with a more strict law? The fact is that suicide is linked most of the times with mental health or a person’s choice and it is not viewed as a public matter or even for the fact that it does not receive the same attention as a mass shooting. Therefore, only a small number of Republicans considerate gun violence as a significant problem. On the other hand, Democrats, as stated above, tend to live in the bigger cities in the country, having closer experiences whit gun violence, therefore considering it as a big problem. As defined above, political processes are the ways that politics use the rules to in their favor, however, those rules and laws that all come from the institutional design. Institutional design is the way that the government is organized. There is Executive, legislative and judicial powers, and they work together to approve or disapprove anything that is proposed by a political party. Therefore, one can say that gun reforms stems from the way that the institution is designed, and the way that politics use political processes to delay any the approval of certain laws.

To sum up, polarization cannot be considerate just one problem it has its ramifications. For example, polarization is one of the causes that politics cannot find a common ground about gun reforms, immigration and other issues. American politics have lost the patience to even understand the other party ideology. People have also lost the empathy to understand each other’s problems. At the end both parties have the best interest for the country, however there is a lack of communication and union. For example the discussion about immigration, President Trump wants to build a wall, Democrats want friendly laws. Both ideas could be taken in consideration and they could be able to work together. The same happens when it comes to guns reforms, Democrats just want more severe laws and background checks. Both parties should just be able compromise and to seat together and find a solution that would not only reduce the number of deaths as well as unify the country, reducing the high level of polarization