It Doesn’t Matter Who You Blame
Happy November everyone! I’d like to take today as an opportunity to quickly return to a topic I wrote my first two articles mainly about, extremism.
Today, my AP US Government teacher showed the class an article in The Atlantic. The article, titled Trump is Radicalizing the Democratic Party provided me with a really unique and interesting insight into Trump’s effect on the other side of the spectrum until I realized one rather crazy thing.
The article still made near perfect sense if you changed out Trump’s name for Bernie Sanders. It didn’t stop there. By substituting the media, some parts seemed to flow even BETTER than with the original blame on Mr. Trump.
I was dumbfounded. How could something that clearly seemed so left, so biased, suddenly change meanings completely? But I soon realized that regardless of who the blame was being put on, the story was the same.
For me, this sheds new light on the recent election and the overall state of the Democratic party. I would highly recommend reading this article here. I believe you will see exactly what I see, and since it was powerful for me, maybe it will be compelling for others.
P.S. This would be a great post to comment on. I really want to know what people think of what I just said, as it is obviously a unique opinion, and I am already aware of some flaws my opinion has. Please let me know in the comments what you think!
For this and more great articles by columnist Sam Catania, visit his blog, The Lonely Politico.
Ben Feldman • Nov 15, 2017 at 8:23 am
Partisan politics are difficult to navigate.
One thing I noted when covering the DNC is that both parties have a mainstream segment (the remnants of the loyal George W. Bush and Barrack Obama Republicans and Democrats, respectively), coming to a new moderate strain (the John Kasich and Hillary Clinton Republicans and Democrats, respectively), with other more polarizing figures on the other side of moderate (Ted Cruz and Elizabeth Warren Republicans and Democrats, respectively).
Then you have the problem–the far right and left who have become the future of both parties (the Donald J. Trump “Republicans” and Bernie Sanders “Democrats.”) These figures are “to blame” equally, and shouldn’t really be blamed for shifting the views of the nation. Trump is our President, which leads most of those classic Republicans (especially the center right and more polarizing right) to back him, which inevitably leads to the Atlantic saying that Republicans are to blame.
In reality, if Bernie had won (Here’s how Bernie can still win the election!) the same thing would have happened–more moderate and polarizing leftists would have fallen in line, and the right would have blamed Bernie for polarization.
The solution I see is to stop identifying with parties. To each his/her own–follow your political instincts and don’t feel compelled to identify with the winner of the election because of the letter next to his/her name on the ballot.