{"id":2456,"date":"2018-04-22T15:07:01","date_gmt":"2018-04-22T19:07:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/introamgov-mcgowen\/?p=2456"},"modified":"2018-04-22T15:08:51","modified_gmt":"2018-04-22T19:08:51","slug":"polarization-in-the-wedding-chapel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/introamgov-mcgowen\/2018\/04\/22\/polarization-in-the-wedding-chapel\/","title":{"rendered":"Polarization in the Wedding Chapel?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chapter 9 discusses the political parties in America and their growing polarization. It discusses the importance of the political parties for citizens\u2019 political sovereignty, in that they can choose to be a part of a party that best represents their political ideology. However, the growing political polarization in today\u2019s society has become so severe that it seems our government is constantly running into problems of gridlock and refusal for any compromise. In the American public, people tend to surround themselves with people and news that supports their political ideology. This is due to the fact that people\u2019s political views are tied up in their social identity. Simply, people enjoy hearing that they are right and receiving validation rather than having to argue or defend their beliefs.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.people-press.org\/2014\/06\/12\/political-polarization-in-the-american-public\/<\/a><\/p>\n

In our age when approval ratings of same-sex marriage<\/a>as well as interracial marriage<\/a>are at an all-time high, it is shocking to discover that approval ratings of \u201cinterpolitical marriage<\/a>\u201d has actually decreased. The Gallup organization took surveys from a sample of random Americans and asked the simple question: Would you want your son\/daughter to marry a Democrat or a Republican? In 1958, only 28 percent of people specified a specific party, while 72 percent of people answered that they would not mind either party. When this survey was redone in 2016, it was found that only 45 percent of people said they did not have a preference, while 28 percent said they preferred Democrat and 27 percent preferred Republican. This drop of 27 percentage points shows how politically polarized our country has become, to the point that people do not even want their children associating with people of the other political party. Gallup also did this survey with a population of Americans that identified strongly as either Republican or Democrat. In 2016, 60 percent of Democrats wanted their child to marry a Democrat, while 63 percent of Republicans wanted Republicans.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/fivethirtyeight.com\/features\/how-many-republicans-marry-democrats\/<\/a><\/p>\n

This is a reflection of how politically polarized our country has become, to the point where it has spilled over to the realm of \u2018romance.\u2019 To add onto this, online dating has further fueled this political divide in how people choose their mate. With online dating, you can easily select your political preference and the sorting mechanism on the website will only pair with you people of similar ideologies. There are also an increasing number of dating sites that base themselves completely off political identification, such as websites like RepublicanPeopleMeet.com<\/a>or liberalhearts.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I find it highly concerning that someone can just click a button and then completely shut out any potential romantic partners or new friendships based solely on political preference. I believe that tools like these lead to the further polarization of our country, as it easily allows people to refuse to interact with people of different ideologies. If this trend of dating only in one\u2019s political party continues, \u201cthere will be more individuals at the ideological extremes over generations\u201d (springer.com). While it is highly unlikely that it will happen, I believe that dating sites should not take into account political party identification and should match people based off their compatibility in other matters, rather than just political ones. What do you think about the trend in dating in the same political party? Do you think there can be something done about it or is it an inevitable part of the growing polarization of our country?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sources:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/news.gallup.com\/poll\/210566\/support-gay-marriage-edges-new-high.aspx?g_source=link_newsv9&g_campaign=item_224717&g_medium=copy<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/news.gallup.com\/poll\/163697\/approve-marriage-blacks-whites.aspx<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.voanews.com\/a\/mixed-political-marriages-an-issue-on-rise\/3705468.html<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/01\/31\/upshot\/are-you-married-to-your-party.html<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.ozy.com\/opinion\/interpolitical-dating-the-romeo-and-juliet-story-of-our-times\/79649<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1007\/s11109-012-9207-z?null=&version=meter+at+null&module=meter-Links&pgtype=Blogs&contentId=&mediaId=&referrer=&priority=true&action=click&contentCollection=meter-links-click<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chapter 9 discusses the political parties in America and their growing polarization. It discusses the importance of the political parties for citizens\u2019 political sovereignty, in that they can choose to be a part of a party that best represents their political ideology. However, the growing political polarization in today\u2019s society …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3769,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40542,40540,68425],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1030am-section","category-culture-war","category-spring-2018","column","twocol"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/introamgov-mcgowen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/introamgov-mcgowen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/introamgov-mcgowen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/introamgov-mcgowen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3769"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/introamgov-mcgowen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/introamgov-mcgowen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/introamgov-mcgowen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/introamgov-mcgowen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/introamgov-mcgowen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}