As a nation, we've become increasingly polarized toward either end of the political spectrum. This increase in political affiliation has caused a number of setbacks for political debate in the nation. Although obnoxious pundit shows and nonsensical rallies are just some of the setbacks I can name, the most alarming is the rapid rate at which we are willing to give up our own positions on an issue for the sake of the political party.
The word "winning" has been an increasingly popular term of late, not to discredit Charlie Sheen, but it seems the focus on "winning" was very popular before Sheen descended upon the Twitter world.
As a people, we've become more concerned with ensuring that our own political party is "winning" whether it be in political opinion polls, elections or on god-awful shows such as The View, instead of ensuring the politician or legislation we so aggressively bolster up actually executes policy that we believe in. Being a conservative doesn't automatically commit one to a lifetime pledge to fight against gay marriage rights, abortion and the poor. Yet in today's world, if a conservative doesn't support one of these stances it's seen as a weakness or a "win" for the other side. The same goes for the liberal viewpoint.
Instead of simply championing these stereotypes commonly identified with the political party, we should challenge our own political party to meet our standards.
Just because a candidate has a (D) or a (R) next to his or her name, doesn't mean his or her views are aligned with your own.
Similarly, just because someone of your particular political party backs legislation does not mean you should automatically support that proposal.
When was the last time you took a moment to actually read over a senate or house bill?
When was the last time you did that before engaging in a political argument with someone about said bill?
Or did you simply rely on whatever bits you overheard on the evening news?
Too often, in today's society, we are willing to tell others what their political ideology should be yet we've done so little to educate ourselves about our own claimed ideology.
It's up to our generation to challenge today's traditional view of "liberal" or "conservative."
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Study after study has shown that as a people, Generation Y is more accepting of social issues. On the opposite end of the scale, according to a March 2 article in US News and World Report, other studies suggest Generation Y is extremely frugal, out of concern for the debt that our parents did such a good job of making for us.
Generation Y's mindset is a challenge, not to American values, but to the traditional political party alignment.
Our generation should bask in these ideals, not conform to please the party. Instead, We should push legislation that is molded to our indvidual logic. Politicians will gladly bend, after all, it's your vote that keeps them #winning.
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