American Political Polarization

In 2008, when fresh-faced presidential candidate Barack Obama coasted to electoral victory, it was clear that the world had ended. Flabbergastingly, in an insane display of misjudgment, the American people had elected to office a president who, according to one prominent GOP member, would 'pal around with terrorists,' a president whose socialistic temperaments signaled the dawn of a new and darker era of American politics. Obama's presidency would be a disaster of biblical proportions—a reign of fire. Beside Obama's America, even the Canadian hinterlands looked welcoming. The rapture, it seemed, had come. On the other hand, Barack Obama's victory was the greatest thing to happen to the nation since the abolishment of slavery. Obama would, as a matter of fact, snatch America and indeed the world out from between the jaws of devastation. Here finally was the knight in shining armor the nation so desperately needed. Obama's administration would be one of Hope: progressive, innovative and a total reinvention of the political status quo. If you were at all cognizant in 2008, you will recognize these narratives. As patently ridiculous as they may seem, they represent with a fair bit of accuracy the two rhetorical extremes of America's split political consciousness. The 2008 presidential election was a polarizing one, in which scores of political sideliners were evangelized, sorted into one or another ideological camp, and made to believe in a politics of destiny. The polarization visible throughout the 2008 election was not, however, a new phenomenon. For years, Congressional representatives had been growing steadily more segregated along party lines. And for years,