Political Polarization in America is...Russia's fault?

Political polarization has always been prevalent in the United States, but those of us in the masses are feeling this polarization now more than ever, especially after the 2016 election. The common thought behind this is that the choices between candidates were so awful that the voting population was forced to choose between the lesser of two evils. However, this does not really explain the polarization between the parties. This polarization has occurred because candidates have had to cling tighter and tighter to their respective party’s ideologies in order to win their difficult primary elections. This is turn yields candidates who represent the most extreme values of their party, something the average, moderate voter has difficulty relating with. Lately, this moderate voter has been lost in an identity crisis, unsure of which party best represents the values he or she truly stands for. Alas, not all of the voting population is facing this identity crisis today. In reality, according to what we see in the media and on social media, there exists only two camps within the voting population; the extreme left and the extreme right.

            Connecting political polarization in the United States to foreign policy might seem far-fetched or feeble, but the connection is not so distant after all. In mid-February, the Mueller special counsel indicted 13 Russian individuals in connection with interfering with the 2016 United States presidential election. This may seem insignificant to some, but to others, the situation could not be more daunting. These individuals are thought to have been a part of an organization more or less assembled indirectly by Vladimir Putin, Russia’s President. These individuals, employees of the Internet Research Agency, created thousands of false accounts on social media sites and spread extremist propaganda. This acted as a catalyst for the public’s bubbling emotions surrounding the odd and unique nature of the 2016 election, and further deepened the cleavage between Democrats and Republicans. These Russian individuals were able to expose feelings of citizens, specifically social media users, that would more or less not have surfaced otherwise, allowing significant feelings of resentment from members of one party to develop towards the other. Through the use of “Russian bots,” or falsified profiles of users, generated to seem like genuine American citizens, the Russians were able to send comments or tweets to other users that exhibited extremist views and elicited extremist responses from actual people. And the emotions felt by the real people were very real. Russia and Vladimir Putin, unable to defeat the United States on their own, were able to get American citizens to tear the country apart from within. Even worse, they used a damn bird.

            Twitter was the main weapon used that saw the most divisive turmoil from these Russian bots. This is troubling for many reasons; cybersecurity, social media access, foreign involvement in elections, etc. But most troubling is the willingness and gullibility of U.S. citizens to turn on one another so quickly. How quick are American citizens to dig into the depths of prejudices of all kind based on a comment on the internet? The whole premise behind this is so ridiculous, it sounds like an episode of South Park. Russians causing Democrats and Republicans to fight each other over fake tweets and viral Facebook photos? Come on. Americans need to take a step back from their “keyboard warrior” roles and engage in legitimate, real life interactions with other human beings, perhaps even voters. Engaging with people face to face will allow voters to develop opinions based on something much more than opinions on the internet. Democrats and Republicans are far from the days where a civil debate could occur and both sides could walk away semi-satisfied, at the very least recognizing they may have learned something from it. Connecting and networking with people in real life has become a thing of the past, and as cheesy, overplayed, and lame as this sounds, it needs to be said. We, as American citizens and voters, need to engage in face-to-face interactions with one another that are meaningful both in the information exchanged and the feelings we get from it. Allowing ourselves to get worked up over tweets and Facebook pictures that pit Democrats against Jesus is ludicrous. Step (or roll) away from the keyboard and just assume it is a Russian bot on the other side of the screen. So please, do not direct your anger at the opposing political party. As Dr. William Muck says, “Direct your anger at Vladimir Putin.”