Racial and Political Divide in the United States

In the last six months, both the impossible has happened, and the States’ dark history has again rised. Donald Trump was elected as president, a man who had publicly shamed women and made stereotypical, offensive, and degrading comments about everything from gender diversity to the civil war.

Just these past few days have been enough evidence in seeing the contrasting ideologies of people from this nation, with the anti-fascist and anti-racist peaceful protest taking a violent turn. The country seems to reminisce on the days when the country was united, but in this situation, the country could not be more divided.

It had to do with taking down a confederate statue, a symbol of America’s hard struggle through the civil war and the oppression of the coloured people. Last Saturday, a white man drove his car through a car of anti-fascist protesters, protesting against white supremacists that wanted the confederate statue to remain in its standing place in Virginia. Many condemn the act as domestic terrorism, but there are many that value the morals of preserving confederate culture. This is not the first disagreement.

The past elections are controversial enough, with the two topping candidates to be far opposites and having two very different supporter types. The people could not be more segregated in terms of beliefs and support that they posed for each candidate.  The policies and plans the Trump and Hillary Clinton presented opposed one another in every way, making it hard for their to be abstaining voters, as anti-Trump and anti-Clinton were the trend.

The dangers of division between people, politics, and race are extensive. Karen Stenner, a political psychologist, spent  significant time studying people who express racial and political intolerance, finding that they pose a threat to liberal democracies. The demand and have a need for unity and “sameness” something the United States does not have. The States was developed and built and multiculturalism and migration, yet people have not moved on with the times.

When these peoples’ “authoritarianism” is threatened, they feel the need to have immigration laws and restrictions, stricter policies on gender diversity, and racial discrimination, all actions displayed by the man at the top, Trump. The polarization of people has put the nation in a difficult place in having order and civil supported government leadership.

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