What is it?
In class, we watched three Ted Talks. All the videos were based on the idea of bipartisanship. This is when the two political parties can go across the aisle and work together on issues. I think that your political party shouldn’t get in the way of deciding on important issues for the country. We’re called the United States. Yet if in the House of Representatives and the Senate, we aren’t coming across the aisle to talk to each other, then we aren’t really “united” are we? We should all be trying to work together to do what's best for our county. Bridge the great divide, if you will. Yes, the two parties have different views, but we should be working together to incorporate a sort of compromise.
Wikilmages
Videos
The three Ted Talk videos were all about different topics, however, all have the theme of partisanship. The first video titled "We the People, and the Republic we must Reclaim" was about how corrupt the government can be. And how partisanship plays a role in it. The second video titled "G.T. Bynum A Republican mayor's plan to replace partisanship with policy" illustrated how you can achieve bipartisanship when you focus more on policies that will make both sides happy, regardless of your own political party. The third and final video and the one I will be focusing on, titled "Caitlin Quattromani and Lauran Arledge: How our friendship survives our opposing politics" shows how much politics can affect your everyday life. More specifically, when you have different beliefs than your friends or family.
Ted Talk
Solution
One of the main problems with politics is how angry it can get people, even the best of us. Leggs from Healthline says "But this is the problem with arguing politics: It’s not hard for us to get defensive, or for arguments to break out that quickly become personal or mean." This is an issue, and why a lot of people can lose a loved one over politics. They immediately treat the topic of conversation like an argument, wanting to make sure their side "wins". However, it doesn't have to be this way. You can try doing what Caitlin Quattromani and Lauran Arledge suggested, having a conversation where the people involved listen to each other. This would involve the people talking about their views and listening, trying better to understand their views. Even though they may not agree with them. Having this more dialogue style conversation can help relieve a lot of tension about politics, and make it so talking about it with family or friends becomes easier.
Handshake
g_t_bynum_a_republican_mayor_s_plan_to_replace_partisanship_with_policy.
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— and How to Show Up Differently." Healthline, Healthline Media a Red
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Ted.com, TED Conferences, LLC., Feb. 2013, www.ted.com/talks/
lawrence_lessig_we_the_people_and_the_republic_we_must_reclaim#t-1064788.
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unhappy-man-mask-sad-face-sitting-389944/. Accessed 18 Dec. 2020.
Pesce, Nicole Lyn. "Stressed out and losing friends over politics? You're not
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story/stressed-and-losing-friends-over-politics-youre-not-alone-2019-09-26.
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Quattromani, Caitlin, and Lauran Arledge. "How our friendship survives our
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I definitely agree that politics can drive a divide between many relationships with friends and family. The solution that you gave seems very helpful, I'll have to try it. In the past I have just tried not to talk about politics with my friends. Do you think that is still a helpful solution?
ReplyDeleteSophie - I think sometimes when you don't talk about it when you have different views than your peers, the problem may grow. I think personally it's better to address problems before they become bigger problems. That way when the topic of politics comes up, you can have a calm conversation, and not make things too awkward.
DeleteIs there a reason why partisanship has increased? Also, your last two pictures aren't working anymore, though I'm not sure why.
ReplyDeleteSophie - I think part of the reason why partisanship has increased is due to social media. Now everyone has a voice and it can be heard, so now the radicals on both sides are more visible to the public. And news that radicals want to read, is now more readily available to them. And I'm not sure why those two images don't work, before I published it, I previewed it and nothing was wrong, the images were still there.
DeleteI really like how you relate partisanship with everyday life. Why do you think politics have so much effect on our everyday life, how we perceive things?
ReplyDeleteSophie - I think it depends on the person. At least for me I don't tend to talk about politics much unless there's an election. However some people are more politically active than others. Those are the type of people that are more likely to talk about politics. I think politics are becoming more important as now there are many important issues, like climate change, and we relate those things to politics.
DeleteHas partisanship within politics started to cross over into partisanship within friend groups or is there another cause for this increase in partisanship. I know from my own experience that many of my friends and I have grown distant due to politics. I also know that many people who I have tried to make friendships with haven't been as open to being friends as soon as politics comes into the equation.
ReplyDeleteI think that social media has a big part in how partisanship has moved more into our lives. And at least this year with the election, politics has come up more than usual and it's been in the media more and more. Both of these things combined make partisanship creep into people's personal life more.
DeleteI really liked your post and I definitely think America is letting their personal and political views get in the way of friendships. Although sometimes the competition between political parties can become too escalated, do you think that some competition and debate on topics is healthy?
ReplyDeleteSophie - Hi Maddie! Yes, I think some debate on topic is healthy. We all have disagreements and that's fine, the problem becomes when the debate becomes too escalated and that's when we start to loose friendships. I think for politicians it's defiantly healthy to debate on topics.
DeleteWhy do you think the country is so divided still? Partisanship has split a lot of peoples friend groups, especially talking about the election this year. within 4 years the country can almost seem like a different place. I really like the ideas you brought into the solution and think a lot of people can use that.
ReplyDeleteSophie - I think it's because as a whole the country is becoming very divided in general. A big reason I think it's so different now is we had a very polarizing president, so it's natural that the country would split in half like that. Some people liked him and some didn't and again.
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