Republican

I’m going to start this column with what I am sure will be a controversial statement: polarization in politics is a good thing.

A recent study showed that Republicans are more conservative now than they have been in the past hundred years, and Democrats are close to being more liberal now than they ever have been in the past hundred years. This is not a bad thing. The best way to ensure that we can fix the problems we have is to stop doing what we’ve been doing in the past.

Bipartisanship is a horrible way to govern. Firstly, anyone calling for increased bipartisanship is really just asking for members of the other party to be more like them. Democrats only complain about civility and polarization when they are in the minority. Republicans are the same way. When we do get bipartisanship and compromise, we end up in the same kind of situation we are now.

In a budget bill, for example, compromise means the Republicans get the tax cuts they like and Democrats get the government spending they like. For political reasons, Republicans don’t dislike the increased spending and Democrats don’t dislike tax cuts, and so the budget bill immediately becomes unbalanced and suddenly we have these large deficits, and an insurmountable debt.

Compromise is what got us here, and partisanship will try its hardest to fix it. Paul Ryan has an economic vision that will solve the debt crisis, slowly but surely. It will never pass until we have single party rule in favor of the Republicans. Democrats don’t have a plan yet, but if they ever decide to get one, it won’t get passed either until we get single party rule in favor of the Democrats.

Yes, I want fiscal solvency. Yes, I want Paul Ryan to craft the plan to get us there. And yes, I want it to be passed, and yes, I want Democrats to vote for it. But I don’t want compromise. I’d imagine that Democrats similarly don’t want compromise on their imaginary plan to get us to fiscal solvency.

Bipartisanship is terrible, and the compromise that comes with it is a recipe for fiscal disaster. But that in itself isn’t an argument for why increased polarization is a good thing.

Polarization creates gridlock. Gridlock, as Justice Antonin Scalia said in a Senate hearing back in October, is what has kept us so free, what has kept our country so great, what has kept this country from the overreach seen in parliamentary systems. It is precisely the lack of cooperation that is brought on by polarization between our separate branches that has prevented the centralization of power.

The bicameral legislature we have set up in America, and the separately elected President is what makes it so hard, and polarization makes it harder for sure. The lack of action in the legislature, as Scalia explained, is the greatest protection of minorities guaranteed to us by the Constitution. And insofar as polarization extends this gridlock, it too protects minority rights.

So yes, I can’t stand that gridlock is preventing us from passing laws that I feel will help this country a great deal, but gridlock and polarization also prevent serious overreach by the federal government and this is definitely worth the lack of action that I would sometimes like to see.

Tucker is a sophomore majoring in political science, economics and public policy.

Democrat

Since the Tea Party wave of 2010, there has been a clearly visible rightward lurch by the Republican Party. This can be seen in the officials elected and the policies passed. Moderates have disappeared and there have been some severe policies, such as the Ryan budget, Scott Walker’s emaciation of the public sector and slashed social programs.

The Presidential candidates reflect this polarized shift as well; even Romney, who used to be moderate, is campaigning more to the right.

There is actual statistical evidence to support this. According to a report by NPR, Keith Poole of the University of Georgia and Howard Rosenthal of New York University have “spent decades charting the ideological shifts and polarization of the political parties in Congress from the 18th century until now to get the view of how the political landscape has changed from 30,000 feet up. What they have found is that the Republican Party is the most conservative it has been a century.”

Democrats have also become more extreme. Karlyn Bowman, who studies public opinion at the American Enterprise Institute said, “The Democratic Party has been pulled to the left and the Republican Party has been pulled to the right. Part of that is redistricting.”

Democrats may be pulled to the left, but they are currently held in better esteem than Republicans. Resentment for the Tea Party is brewing, and that favors the Democrats. The Democratic Party still faces problems. The more moderate the Democratic party becomes, the more it dissatisfies its base.

Actually, both parties are rather dissatisfied. Poole said it right when he said, “People forget how utterly irresponsible our political leadership has been for the last 30 years … The current political class of the U.S. just isn’t in the same league as Truman and Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson. You just don’t have that kind of leadership now, just when we need it.”

While I agree with Poole for the most part, I think we have some good leadership.

The problem is that many people want a dream candidate who will give them their wish list and a catchy slogan. People disregard leadership qualities for glamour.

Elected office is not Hollywood, and should not be a place for theatrics. Many people support a candidate by their party alone, regardless of their position on the issues.

The best example of this partisanship was presented by Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell who said, “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”

This blunt statement foreshadowed the detrimental gridlock and reticence to compromise. Even if McConnell wanted Obama to be a one-term president, he should not project it as the main goal of his base. He should focus mainly on good governance, not power politics.

I believe the most important quality for someone who works in elected office is the ability to compromise and work together to achieve a better future. Until there is compromise, our government will continue to be ineffective.

Anyone can fight for what they believe in, but a true statesman can make compromise work. Compromise and foresightedness are what makes a government work. Government is a large part of how a nation works. We have the power at the ballot box to set off this domino effect, so let us use it.

Michael is a freshman majoring in human rights and political science.