In today’s day and age, there is a lot of division in our country. Election day has brought businesses to board up in preparation for riots, and many people are unhappy with the way our government is being run. With all of this going on, the one thing that I take away from the election is the lack of compromise in our country’s politics.

In George Washington’s farewell address, he warned Americans against a two-party system. He didn’t say our Democratic and Republican system is bad, but he knew the division it would create. Now more than ever Democrats and Republicans are butting heads. Whether it’s the presidential election, the swearing in of new Supreme Court justice Amy Coney Barrett, or the questioning of voter fraud via mail in ballots, there has been a lot of disagreement. I think a lot of this has to do with the involvement of the older community in politics. Whether you admit it or not, the issues facing our nation are new ideas introduced by the younger generation, Black Lives Matter M, climate change, marijuana legality, etc. The interests of younger political movements don’t strike the same cord with older, more experienced people involved in politics nationwide. This leads to disagreement and division that we see today.

Another factor that leads to separation among the two parties is the demographics of voters. We see that big cities are dominated by the Democrats while rural areas heavily are populated by Republicans. Geography drastically changes who votes for who, and this generally creates confusion among these voters. The differences in the environment surrounding one’s life blurs their political understanding of another persons’ situation. For example, a conservative farmer could have trouble understanding a working class BLM supporter living in a tight apartment complex in New York City. The farmer has his own bubble of life that is affected by politics, as does the working class citizen in NYC, but they are affected differently because of where they live.

If we all can put aside our differences and begin to try to understand other people’s situations that prompt political opinions, our country will do a total 180, and hopefully come together to have a functional, compromised upon government.