Polarization

A detailed Summary of Polarization

On Tuesday, November 14, 1995, in what has been perceived as

the years biggest non-event, the federal government shut down all

"non-essential" services due to what was, for all intents and

purposes, a game of national "chicken" between the House Speaker and

the President. And, at an estimated cost of 200 million dollars a day,

this dubious battle of dueling egos did not come cheap (Bradsher,

1995, p.16). Why do politicians find it almost congenitally

impossible to cooperate? What is it about politics and power that seem

to always put them at odds with good government? Indeed, is an

effective, well run government even possible given the current

adversarial relationship between our two main political parties? It

would seem that the exercise of power for its own sake, and a

competitive situation in which one side must always oppose the other

on any issue, is incompatible with the cooperation and compromise

necessary for the government to function. As the United States becomes

more extreme in its beliefs in general, group polarization and

competition, which requires a mutual exclusivity of goal attainment,

will lead to more "showdown" situations in which the goal of good

that, most of the time, politicians are merely giving us what they

rancorous at best, blamed his own (Gingrich's) handling of the budget

he justified his seemingly contradictory positions in terms of his

prime example of both polarization and pandering in the competitive

government, perhaps it is because we expect the people who run it to

the one hand, shabby treatment on an airplane flight is hardly a

country today? If politicians compromise, we call them weak, and if

behind Wilson's decision. Ironically, Wilson's lust for potential

Approximate Word count = 2274
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Politics

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