None of us are reaching across the aisle

As we get closer to the midterm elections, it seems that politicians are getting more volatile in their actions.

From lower-level campaigning to serious confirmation hearings, we have witnessed countless attacks against every facet of public officials’ lives.

We have seen attacks on the person, the family, the beliefs and the motivation of those who seek leadership positions in our government.

These actions are promoting a kind of political stagnation, which undermines whatever greater political unity we could and should have.

The very recent leak by Senator Cory Booker is a very concrete example of the divisiveness politicians are feeling. Booker deliberately broke Senate rules, leaking confidential documents important to the Judge Brett Kavanaugh hearings through his Twitter.

It is somewhat regrettable that Congressman Booker’s frustration caused him to ignore the normal procedures, but one can imagine that Booker’s reaction is born from the fact that the Republican-led Congress would not even deign to consider meeting with Merrick Garland, President Obama’s choice for the Supreme Court nomination.

There is a level of obstinacy on both sides of the aisle that can’t be ignored and it is the strict partisanship between the parties that is creating an era where no one wants to cross the aisle and extend a hand.

This is turning into an era of intransigent partisanship and political stagnancy that I don’t think America has ever dealt with before.

One could blame this trend towards acrimony and divisiveness on a sitting president or a congressional leader. But as former President Obama suggested recently, focusing on one person is merely looking at the symptom rather than investigating the root causes.

The toxic environment created by politicians themselves has bled into the sociopolitical bubbles of civilians across the country, making them just as blind to the other side’s perspective as their party leaders seem to be.

In classes it seems that as students we are unwilling to have any kind of political conversation. No one wants to debate or have a meaningful discussion about politics.

If someone isn’t echoing our sociopolitical sentiment, we see no point in speaking up. How beneficial or helpful could this be to the educational process?

We are living in these echo chambers, ranting about our political allegiances to people who will simply parrot our diatribes back at us.

We sit on our computers and never break from our own political sentiments. We never have to confront different political opinions if we don’t want to.

We curate our Twitter feeds. We friend certain people on Facebook. We like and share certain content on Instagram.

Even outside of social media, we pick and choose which news broadcast to watch. I can sit down and watch CNN for 16 hours and see a mostly liberal political panel. Fox News, on the other hand, can spend hours trumpeting conservative conspiracies that have no basis in fact or reality.

As a nation, we will continue to walk along the edge of this precipice, where there is a potential to fall into the vast, dark and divisive abyss.

If we stop shouting at each other from our respective corners, we can really start to listen to one another, celebrate and focus on all of those things that make us a truly great nation, an adherence to democratic principles being chief among those characteristics.

I’m not saying that we have to always agree, but as the late Senator John McCain wrote in his farewell letter, “We weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with tribal rivalries.”

Political divisiveness, on the outset, is not even necessarily a bad thing. Complex issues breed complex and differing answers and politicians move to the side they agree with the most.

It is an incredibly American thing to have this kind of discourse. We have the freedom to speak honestly and think independently. But when we start shouting at people’s well constructed walls, we don’t move forward.

Our politicians are doing exactly this. They are stooping to a level where they shouldn’t go.

Who exactly is being served by this? I don’t think the American people are.