Political polarization issue brief

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Cissy Ming

3/27/18

Not only black and white: A proposal for bringing back political diversity

Politicians commonly speak of America two countries within one political entity, only nominally united by their citizenship in the United States. From Hillary Clinton’s recent speech which labeled her opponents part of a “backwards” looking America to Donald Trump’s routine denunciation of wealthy globalist elites, examples of tribalism based on political party are apparent to any casual follower of the news. However, the hyperbolic rhetoric of today’s top political players mirrors the same divide among their supporters, the American voters. Pew polling data demonstrates that since the 1990s, Democrats and Republicans have become more likely to express negative feelings toward oppositely-inclined partisans and avoid associating with them. While some critics blame the toxicity of political discourse on now-President Trump, his victory in the Republican primaries and subsequent election to the White House was partly made possible by the intense distrust on both sides. Advocating for a healthier political atmosphere is not a function of opposing Trump’s demeanor or policies, but a necessary task to ensure that the American experiment continues.

Unfortunately, a large number of Americans hold contempt not only for ideas that contradict their values, but the people who believe those ideas. During the 2016 election, an anonymous Republican penned the widely read “The Flight 93 Election” essay, in which he likened a vote for Trump to a last-ditch effort to prevent a terrorist attack. To warn of the price of a Clinton victory, the author described the death of religious liberty, establishment of a McCarthy-ite police state and other dire consequences for the conservative movement and traditional Americans at large. “If you don’t try,” he wrote, “death is certain” before attacking other conservatives for their undue optimism. Although few would frame the political debate in such stark terms, the “Flight 93” mentality appears to a smaller degree in the 27 percent of Democrats and 36 percent of Republicans who told Pew that the other party’s policies threatened the well-being of the nation. The left-right divergence of the parties accounts somewhat for the rise in negative attitudes, but the same Pew survey found that a majority of consistent liberals and conservatives express reluctance to live in communities with one another. When searching for a place to live, the conservatives and liberals featured in Bill Bishop’s book “The Big Sort” drive around to gather impressions of their prospective neighbors’ leanings — checking to see whether churches or organic food stores predominate. Voters perceive the other side as a negative influence on communities and the children they will raise in those communities. The trend toward sorting into like-minded enclaves shows partisan polarization creates a positive feedback loop, in which mutual dislike increases due to lack of personal familiarity with the opposition.

Figure 1: American communities have “sorted” along political lines, as seen in this infographic documenting the increasing number of “landslide” counties — those in which a Republican or Democrat won the popular vote by over 20 percentage points.

Not only can the left and right shelter themselves ideologically in terms of geography, the fragmentation of media and virtual social networks allows people to maintain their echo chambers. The concept of “alternative facts” became the butt of many jokes over the past year, but alternate narratives and even ideas about reality characterise the partisan left and right. A Pew survey of news sources from 2017 observed more stories with positive tones about Trump’s performance among sources with  ⅔ or more of the audience identifying as right-wing. The opposite occurred in outlets with mostly liberal audiences. Unlike extreme partisan polarization, confirmation bias has existed since humans first evolved. Numerous studies into human psychology suggest that people seek out information which supports what they already believe and adopt a “fight or flight” mentality when confronted with threats to their preconceptions. According to polling from during the 2016 election cycle, a plurality of Clinton supporters believed that Social Security would likely remain solvent in the decades to come. In fact, most projections show the system falling into insolvency as the number of retirees outstrips the contributions of workers. The same effect emerged in a plurality of Trump supporters’ false notion that global temperatures have remained the same since the 1980s. With the rise of the internet and increase in the number of outlets, news consumers rarely click on shared articles from outlets that support the opposite perspective. As much as familiarity breeds contempt, unfamiliarity seems to encourage its growth in similar fashion. An Oxford University study finds that Republicans and Democrats believe the other side has more extreme beliefs than it does in reality. “False polarization” — the academic term used for voters’ mistaken perceptions of the degree of ideological differences — contributes to a reluctance to back compromises in Congress. In the context of diverging worldviews, it seems unsurprising that some people assume their opposition operates in bad faith, not that they have considered certain realities that are invisible to an ideologue.

As previously mentioned in this issue brief, mutual resentment manifests in the decline of constructive debate within the political sphere and the public generally. While media and celebrity figures praised the March 24 March for Our Lives as a resurgence of youth civic engagement, some of the rhetoric of the new gun control movement reflects old partisan animosity. March for Our Lives leader David Hogg boasted about declining a call from the president of the United States and regularly speaks on news programs about how NRA members have “blood splattered on their faces” or “blood on their hands.” Even taking into account the immense suffering of school shooting survivors, the poor state of politics is apparent in the fact that supporters of their cause praise an angry, adversarial approach to pushing change. Though calls for elected officials to behave better are commendable, their messaging appeals to trends in opinion, at least among the two parties’ bases. According to an article in The Hill titled “The county that only gave Clinton 5 votes,” Clinton’s 2016 election campaign broke all previous records for amount of negative advertising run against Trump. Her campaign surpassed the also record-breaking 2008 and 2012 Obama campaigns, which relied heavily on negative ads to defeat John McCain and Mitt Romney. The Republican primary saw Trump targeting Ted Cruz’s father as a possible conspirator in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Trump’s other underhanded campaigning  tactics, like rewarding violent supporters with validation, are well documented. As a matter of simple practicality, a political player will prioritize the most motivated groups of people in a democracy. Pew’s survey data finds that voters with a “very negative” view of the opposite party vote at up to three times the rate of moderates. Improving the state of politics means changing the culture, starting from the generation poised to inherit it.

College students have an unprecedented chance to meet people of diverse backgrounds — including political ideology — in an educational environment. The concentration of resources within the university at large presents the opportunity for speakers, events and activities to encourage students to confront diversity. On an anecdotal level, most students spend little time grappling with their political differences or politics generally. This state of affairs is understandable, given the complexities of politics and constant distractions of college life. Therefore, the University Park Undergraduate Association should allocate a portion of student fee dollars to a fund devoted to bringing speakers representing positions across the political spectrum. Penn State is fortunate to have political student organizations ranging from the United Socialists to Turning Point USA, but their funds and potential reach are limited by their number of dues paying members. Many of the speaker events hosted by these groups draw a few dozen attendees, most of whom already sympathize with the organizers.

Passion Blog and Civic Issues Ideas

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For my passion blog, I plan to  continue writing about books as I did last semester. Each week, I’ll read a book and write a post about my thoughts on the writing, themes and story as well as any real-life connections I observe. If I don’t end up reading (which happened often), my post will instead be about a book I read in the past or a general reading-related topic.

For my civic issues blog, I want to write about different facets of the American identity and how Americans can mediate their differences while finding commonalities. Each post would focus on a single aspect of identity, such as religion, immigration status and partisanship. I would draw from my personal experience and data from outside sources.

This I Believe

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The United Nations Declaration of Rights of the Child entitles each child to a name. Naming children shows that parents at least acknowledge their existence and care enough to distinguish them from everything else in their world. There are shelves of books devoted to the subject of names, especially the critical choice all expecting parents must make when deciding their children’s names.

I certainly can’t recall the process my parents went through as they examined those first ultrasound images, but I’m sure they never intended for me to make a separate name for myself. 

I feel almost guilty about spitting on their weeks of  deliberation. After all, my parents  named me after a princess. I can console  myself  that it was an accident I have no way of undoing.

The first day of kindergarten at Roberts Elementary School was an ordinary, almost boring, day for me. Since my birthday missed the grade cutoff date by two months, my parents enrolled me in a preschool head start program so that by the time I entered Roberts, I was well acclimated with school routines. Many of my less experienced classmates who had trouble adjusting to their new surroundings cried for their parents.

I sat on the rug and toyed with a stray piece of yarn, waiting for the end of the day so I could finally watch Arthur on TV.  My teacher, Mrs. Davis, comforted the other students before taking role. In my preschool class or whenever I met strangers, my parents introduced me as “Cissy (pronounced see-see)” but I was all alone on that day. I couldn’t hide behind my mom’s legs or burrow under my dad’s oversized polo. When Mrs. Davis called my name, she hesitated before guessing the pronunciation.

“Cissy?” she said.

I didn’t know what to do. On one hand, I’d been taught not to talk back to the teacher, but on the other hand, I didn’t want my name mispronounced. Then, as I sometimes do now, I shut down when I most needed to assert myself. I decided to remain silent. For the rest of the year, Mrs. Davis called me Cissy and so did my classmates. From that point onward, I introduced myself to new people as Cissy but my parents and old friends continued to call me “Cissy”. My two names marked off the public and private sectors of my life, two identities given my the people who surrounded me. 

Many people think of a “sissy” as someone who lacks conviction and self-confidence. When Mrs. Davis first called my name, I couldn’t muster the courage to correct her. In that moment, I defined myself as a “Cissy” both literally and figuratively. I began this essay by discussing the value of names within our world. You might wonder what benefit I could possibly have from such an embarrassing mispronunciation of my name. Though the symbolism might seem too perfect, I understand now that I learn from the mistake that gave me my name by becoming more confident. In that regard, my name might have a different sort of meaning for me than the one we usually consider.

I believe that each person has the opportunity to define their own identity. I believe we must seize that opportunity, or allow others to tell us who we are.

Ideas post

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For my This I Believe podcast, I want to speak about the 2008 recession’s impact on my family and how it taught me that we don’t control what happens to us, but we determine how we respond to hardship. Growing up, I lived in a community where most parents had stable, high-paying jobs including my dad, who worked for pharmaceutical company GSK. The recession and job outsourcing meant that the company laid off many of its workers at his site, and eventually, he was laid off as well. The notion of an unemployed parent was strange to me because my experiences thus far taught me to expect a steady income. I was upset with my dad for “getting fired” and I didn’t understand economic reality.

On a lighter note, I might also do my podcast about learning music and what it taught me about accomplishing any goal. Once you know how to read music, learning a piece of music becomes mostly about just playing it repeatedly and gradually figuring out how the notes flow. However, I’ve found that there are always things I can do to interpret a piece differently or make it sound better. Like learning music, no goal will begin itself.

For my Civic Issues Blog, I’d like to write about the American identity today and the controversies over what qualities should unite us. Each blog post would focus on a specific aspect of identity, such as religious identity, race, immigration status and others. I plan to research the historical context of the issue, then write about the current state of the country as it concerns the issue. Given my research and personal values, I’ll present my opinion on how to resolve the tensions.

This blog topic might be too general, so my second idea is for a blog about immigration. The issue of immigration inspires a lot of emotional passions, which makes it difficult to debate or discuss it. To the extent that it’s possible given my personal biases, I’d write an assessment of what values guide both sides after reading other opinions on the topic. Then, I would decide what I believe or come up with a compromise.

For my Passion Blog, I want to continue with my current idea. Ideally, I read a book each week then write a review and commentary on the book. If I don’t end of reading that week, as is often the case, I’ll write about a memorable book I read previously or some other reading related topic. The format for my passion blogs is currently pretty open ended. I might reflect on the parallels between my own observations and the content of the book or general trends in the books I read.

Another idea I’d like to try is blogging about the ways geology has influenced human history. For example, mountains often served as a natural defense against invasion while people living in societies on level land risked invasion. I would research and blog about a different example each week.

Deliberating Public Safety in a College Town

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I participated in “Public Safety in a College Town,” hosted by high school students from State College. After attending the deliberation on public safety, I learned more about deliberation as a form of discussing controversy and safety in State College more generally.

I appreciated that the moderators framed the issue not as a clash between opposing interest groups, but as a problem that all sides needed to address. One limitation of the format was that everyone had to agree that public safety is a problem in order to search for common solutions, which limits its applications. For an issue like income inequality, on which the left and right disagree on whether it poses a threat to society, I would envision a debate rather than a deliberation because the common ground doesn’t exist. I noticed the moderators were careful to ask questions centered around “how” to solve the problem rather than if any one way of thinking was “right.” In politics and society, policies become a question of one extreme or another and people feel compelled to define their ideas relative to those extremes.

Given that I just moved to State College three months ago, I entered the discussion feeling like I didn’t have much to contribute to the conversation. As I listened to the other participants, I could relate to the proposed solutions and other people’s perspectives because of my own experiences. The main point of discussion was over whether change should come from above or from gradual shifts in culture.

In my short time at Penn State, I’ve noticed that the university’s no drugs or alcohol on campus policy changes nothing in campus party culture. If they have any effect, the posters threatening harsh penalties for substance use only make students resentful. After hearing about some encounters with disorderly students, I can understand why people who have had these negative experiences could advocate for a law and order approach. Without any way to voice concerns to students, penalties can seem like the only way to keep them in check. While State College residents were often on the receiving end of vandalism or theft, enforcement of public safety disproportionately affects students. The issue affects State College residents and Penn State students in different ways, but both groups agreed to a greater degree than I expected.  

Everyone came to the conclusion that university crackdowns on Greek life, drinking and parties did little to improve the safety of either students or townies. My deliberation group and every group in the room favored solution two, which included more community builders and educational events for students to connect with townies. The way the solutions were presented, they seemed clean-cut and easy to implement, which is not the fault of the moderators. When discussing issues in the abstract, people often idealize solutions and skip over the obstacles to putting them in place.

One obvious shortcoming was that the people engaging in these events would not necessarily represent the whole of State College or Penn State. In my group, all of the students were freshmen who lived on campus. It just so happened that they were also there for extra credit for their English classes. I believe the deliberation would have been improved by the participation of upperclassmen, off-campus students and students involved in Greek life. It’s one thing to complain about noise or partying from fraternity houses, but members of Greek organizations are actually in a position to take action on the complaints. State College residents who dislike Penn State students would likely not want to attend events with them, making me question how effective grassroots community building really would be. 

Overall, I enjoyed the opportunity to observe and participate in the deliberation, and I’ll keep my observations in mind when I prepare for a deliberation in this class.

Rhetoric and Civic Life Reflection

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At the beginning of the semester, my conception of rhetoric included only a narrow range of situations and forms of speech. I thought of civic life as a political term, which applied to voting and protests, but nothing I would do in my everyday life. Throughout the length of this course, I realized that those two terms encompass a lot of the content I consume and my own daily communication. Learning about the characteristics of rhetoric, seeing examples and analyzing messages made me aware of just how it influences the way people view the world. Ironically, this course has also lead me to become somewhat paranoid, always thinking about how others are trying to manipulate me.

For example, I remember struggling with the assigned blog post about the rhetorical strategies employed in an advertisement. I watched the “Dawn Saves Wildlife” ad and thinking afterwards that it was well put together, the animals were cute and it made we want to buy Dawn dish soap. But why did the ad have such a strong effect on me? Could it have been the cute animals? And what did our instinctive protectiveness toward the animals say about our society? The answers to these questions came more easily than I expected because I incorporate them in my conversations. When I want to convince my parents, I tell them about how my request will help me become a better student or person. I take into account the societal expectation that parents should help their children’s development and provide for them. I preemptively express my gratitude because they like feeling needed.

It surprised me that things as ordinary as sappy ads and parental persuasion could employ the same strategies used by our opinion leaders. In a free system, whether a free market or a representative democracy, persuasion forms the foundation of our interactions. Since Dawn has competitors and legally can’t compel customers to pay for its product, it pulls our heartstrings to get at our wallets. Similarly, I can’t force my parents to do whatever I want. The pervasiveness of persuasion, in some ways, has made me accustomed at analyzing rhetoric without even realizing it.

As I prepare to enter  adulthood, I understand the importance of being able to detect the underlying messages in rhetoric so I can make informed decisions. I also anticipate using many of these strategies to effectively communicate my ideas.

Documentary Script Draft

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Animal testing has a long and messy history of saving thousands of human lives through medical advancement, but also causing the suffering of innocent animals in cruel and unusual experiments. Ancient Greek and Arab physicians tested their surgical procedures on animals before using them on humans. Their experiments indicate that people have long recognized the physical similarities between humans and animals while also believing their lives to have less value. Given the heavy influence of religion on morality in early societies, the primary arguments in favor of animal testing came from the human-centric doctrines of Christianity, Islam and most other religions. However, medieval Catholic theologian Thomas Aquinas discouraged cruelty against animals because it often led to similar treatment of other people.

From a secular viewpoint, Renee Descartes advanced the idea that animals could feel pain and express that pain, but their inferior intelligence made them more like machines than people. The justification Descartes offered paved the way for a century of animal testing in Europe with almost no government oversight. Despite the scientific community’s general tolerance of animal testing, including live dissection, some members of the public reacted by forming Anti-Vivisection Societies or lobbying their governments. Animal testing increased in scope and popularity in the U.S. after an untested drug killed 100 people in 1937, leading to the passage of the Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act of 1938. The law required extensive animal testing before the approval of new medicines, beauty products and food ingredients.

Throughout history, the main tensions within the debate over animal testing have been in the degree to which animals’ similarities to humans granted them similar rights. The reason scientists and doctors turned to animal testing was because animals shared physical characteristics in common with humans, which allowed them to stand in for human subjects and advance our understanding of the human body. For opponents of animal testing, the similarities between animals and humans runs deeper than their external features. If animals had beating hearts, brains and eyes just like people, they could feel pain and suffer psychologically like we did.

TED Talk Outline

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Opener: Show pictures of bored college students in a giant lecture hall, ask why are we here?

-the college years make an impact on students beyond their time in higher education: alumni parents at football games, diplomas hanging in offices

-the purpose of college has evolved since the founding of the higher education system in the Middle Ages: misconception of ivory tower, separate from society — in fact, colleges subject to societal and governmental pressure

-In the beginning: religious education, mainly preservation of knowledge from generation to generation — about training students to assume roles of religious leadership

-Later: German research university (very specialized education, students only learn about their major) vs. English colleges (learning about a core curriculum of the humanities)

-Morill Land Grant universities (including Penn State!): established to educate the residents of a state for low cost, main focus on technical skills

-Up until 1950s, higher education in the U.S. was reserved mainly for society’s upper classes and a select few who were considered gifted enough

-GI Bill provided funds for thousands of veterans to attend college after World War II, explosion in numbers of students and federal aid

-As demographics of college students and societal forces changed, colleges changed their character to reflect the diversity of their students (backgrounds and demographics)

-dropped Latin and Greek requirements for admissions — allowed for students who weren’t private school graduates

-shift away from core curriculum and other course requirements for students

-colleges became less about instilling specific traits or ideals in students, more about letting students find themselves and take advantage of opportunities on their own

-talk about Penn State: we might say we are Penn State, but what makes us Penn State? Ask audience to name things Penn State students share in common.

-everyone is studying different subjects, taking different classes, involved in their own niche on campus

-we’re all students on this campus, but we all want different things out of our education and Penn State provides us the chance to realize our objectives.

-remains to be seen how the college experience will change

 

 

Inside the Mind of A Master Procrastinator

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In “Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator,” writer Tim Urban recalls his struggles overcoming academic procrastination during his college years and the underlying problem of procrastinating in life. This is one of my favorite TED Talks because of its simplicity and relevance to my own life.

As a fellow procrastinator who is admittedly writing this blog post the night before class, I related to Urban’s thought process as he delayed work on his thesis from the beginning of the year to three days before the deadline. I have never written ninety pages in three days (yet!), but his visuals depicting the hypothetical “climb” of work required to finish his thesis under a six month, three month and three day timescale effectively illustrated the problems with procrastination. The scenarios become more and more impractical, however, the procrastinator convinces themselves that they can pull it off because they have done it before.

A significant portion of the audience is likely procrastinators, or people who have experience dealing with procrastinators, so Urban’s humor helps them feel open to considering something society considers a shameful habit. While he stands at a podium surrounded by hundreds of adoring listeners, he shows a rare sense of humility that establishes his personal credibility on giving advice to help the audience live their best lives. He jokes that his thesis was one of the best the university ever saw, and I inwardly rolled my eyes because that’s how every cheesy internet story ends. When he confessed to the audience that the thesis was terrible, I felt more willing to listen to him because he has the honesty to admit his mistakes and the intelligence to learn from them. I saw him not as an expert giving a dry explanation of the negative effects of procrastination, but as another person who deals with the same mental hurdles I do.

Once Urban promised to show the audience diagrams of the procrastinator’s brain, I braced myself to absorb complex depictions of brain activity charts and what each feature demonstrated. It took me a few replays to appreciate his bait-and-switch style of speaking. The childlike drawings of the instant gratification monkey, the rational decision maker and the panic monster proved more engaging than colored pictures of brains. Seeing my motivations boiled down to such simple players helped me make sense of why I procrastinated and how procrastination was really giving in to weaknesses rather than playing to my strengths. In the past, I tried to explain away my procrastination by telling myself that my procrastination made me smarter because it taught me how to work under pressure.

The overarching message of Urban’s TED Talk introduced a novel way of thinking of procrastination as not just a student thing, but an issue all people face as they pass through their lives. Even though I still have decades to live, the boxes on the screen showing every week of a 90-year life  put into perspective how few weeks we have to waste. By putting off what we want to accomplish another week or another year, it becomes easier to never do it at all. I liked that the speech turned what seems like a topic relevant only to one demographic (procrastinators) into a message everyone can benefit from.

 

Paradigm Shifts

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For my paradigm shift essay, I’m considering writing an essay about the changes in the role college plays in the development of young adults. On one hand, abundant student loans and the large number of higher ed institutions makes college more accessible to learners from diverse backgrounds. As a result, college is becoming a familiar part of the path from teenager to workforce. However, some are concerned that the oversupply of students and the profit incentives of colleges have made college more of a factory for perfectly-credentialed graduates than a place to define your identity. I have no idea on my views of the topic, so most of my early research would focus on reading as much material as possible from each side, then formulate my own position.

Given my obvious interest in the issue as a college student, I want to look at how the evolving job market and college application process have changed the way students view their high education years. I recently read the memoir “Privilege,” the story of the author’s years at Harvard and his disillusionment with the school’s lofty reputation. I would include research from the book, as well as accounts from other authors, both contemporary and past, of their college years.

In that case, my essay would focus mainly on personal accounts, though I would use statistics to provide an idea of the situation. I think the most effective means of conveying my thesis, whatever it becomes, will be through the eyes of people who have been through the system. Personal feelings are best expressed through stories, rather than one-phrase survey responses or numbers.

A secondary I have is to look at the college admissions process, how the “ideal” student has changed over the years. During my time applying to 11 colleges last year, I worried endlessly about this topic, tailoring my essays to fit the aesthetic of each school while trying to distinguish myself just enough from the crowd. Even though I wasn’t born at the time, I tried to think of the years when students didn’t have to write numerous essays or win top awards to get into college. I can’t imagine Brown having only seven students to fill its massive campus (actually happened, according to tour guide), which is why I would like to explore the issue further. Given the large numbers of students whose applications pass through admissions offices, the essay would have to be more numbers-heavy.