I think we all know what both of the major political parties feel about each other, but I think it’s time we separate the facts from the stereotypes. There are some traits of each party that are generally unsettling, but sometimes people go too far with their views of them.
Source: Washington Post
A lot of the misconceptions come down to income. Generally speaking, the public believes that the Republicans are the ones making all of the money while the Democrats are in the lower classes of income. The Washington Post states that political scientists Dough Ahler and Gaurav Sood conducted a study that showed that the subjects thought that 38 percent of Republicans made more than $250,000 per year when it is actually 2 percent. The same with the other side. The subjects believed that 32 percent of Democrats were gay, lesbian, or bisexual. The correct answer is 6 percent. But we must justify these facts.
Source: Forbes
While the Republican party does tend to make more than the Democrats, we have to understand why and why they chose that party. Obviously, they probably make a lot of money, having worked their entire lives for it and don’t want to give it up for people who haven’t worked as hard as them. They don’t take too fondly to higher taxes for their income class. This is not true for all of them, but there are definitely a lot of these types of people. For the Democrat side, who are stereotyped as having lower income, they might not even care about the money and want to put the money towards our actual problems like prescription medication being overpriced. They all don’t want a socialist economy, but rather just fix the openly wrong issues that can be solved by taking a little bit more from the upper class.
I don’t typically align with any particular party, but I do hold positions from both. I do agree that the pharmaceutical industry is making out like bandits from prescription medicine. However, the people who work their entire lives to be making that much money per year deserve to see it. The solution is to find a middle ground, but clearly, that isn’t going to happen any time soon. Typical greed and overstepping always causes conflicts from both sides. It is actually the opposite of what you think when it comes to knowing more about misconceptions. People who ignore political news generally have a better perception of both parties. Let’s keep everything for the benefit of everyone and keep everything from being personal.
Sources:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/05/23/democrats-are-gay-republicans-are-rich-our-stereotypes-of-political-parties-are-amazingly-wrong/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ofx/2018/09/12/the-past-present-and-future-of-global-money-transfer/
I feel like while there are definitely people who fully support one party or the other, a majority of people fall somewhere in-between the two. The problem with the two-party system is that it can be very polarizing, leading people to form these moderate views that do not necessarily align with one party or the other. I know I, personally, choose not to align myself with one. It is too large of a source of contention and each party has policies that I disagree strongly with, as a lot of people I have talked to also echo. I think the reason political parties get their stereotypes is because of these strong polarizing views they hold, but if they were to turn to more moderate ones, would that be as effective and would people start to complain the two parties are too similar? Just some food for thought here. I know in Germany there are at least seven different parties, a main three of four that dominate but enough people in every party that they all have a fighting change to get people into Congress and everything. Most people agree that the U.S. should adopt a system like this but who wants to be the first one to branch away from the main parties?
In order to reduce the political tension and dichotomy between the parties, we need to stop stereotyping and misjudging others. We need to just have civil conversations and just talk our way out of things without making everything a competition or argument. In order to progress forward, that is the mentality that we must take. Our current way of governing is a joke and must be resolved so that it can actually perform its role in society.