Something from Zinn’s chapter, “Unreported Resistance”, that caught my attention was the ideas of the presidential election. Zinn talks a lot about Bush and Reagan and their election and presidencies. It was (and maybe still is) believed that they won with landslide victory. In both of these elections it has been known that many people didn’t vote. It is also apparent that the popular vote was much more popular than thought– because of the way the electoral map showed a clear victory it can confuse people. These two Presidents did not go into office unresisted. Many Americans expressed their clear opinions and dislike towards them so that it was known that just because they won, doesn’t mean the whole country loves them. This reminds me a lot of the past 2 elections. The candidates, Trump and Clinton, then Trump and Biden, have been so polar opposite that it has completely split the country. In the 2016 election Trump won the election but didn’t win the popular vote– a very uncommon thing. This is something that didn’t sit well with many Americans and he faced tons of resistance. Again in this most recent 2020 election, Biden defeated Trump but it was very close. This obviously made Biden supporters/Trump haters happy, but there are a ton of Trump supporters (almost half the country) left unhappy. I just find it to be almost sad how recently when the candidate wins people don’t really just accept it and move on. I talked to my parents about this and they said they find it so crazy that the country is like this right now. They said plenty of times the president they voted for didn’t win and it wasn’t that big of a deal. I don’t know how but in my opinion America needs to find candidates that are less on complete opposite ends of the political spectrum.
Building on the idea of citizens being split due to elections, I also find it sad how split the nation is based on political parties. Zinn explains how Democratic and Republican ideas at the core are really not all that different as we make them out to be, but it is the people that really drive a wedge between each other because it becomes more of a class divide. I would like to see a country that is more united in the future, rather than where we are now.
I agree. It is so disheartening to see our society so divided over politics. I don’t understand how our parties became so polar when their core values are similar, and there has been collaboration in history before. It can be done, so how do we make sure it happens again? I am afraid that nothing productive will get done in government these next four years since Republicans and Democrats are so different in their views regarding COVID, the economy, and social reform. We are definitely living in a year that will be talked about in textbooks…not really enjoying it.
I think you did a great job of outlining the issues we are currently facing, and also giving a solution or hope for the future. I agree that it seems like people are far more exclusively aligned with their political parties, and are less likely to find common ground with others. I think this is in part because we now get such biased news based on our preferences that we really dont even get to hear the other side’s opinions. I think that social media has progressively increased this divide