Political polarization in the United States is among the major problems due to the overall intensity and scale of the tension between Republicans and Democrats. It is important to note that both parties used to occupy a political position closer to the center with room for deviation, but the recent changes indicate that the average position of each party shifted towards the extremes due to a high level of adherence to ideological stances and novel narratives. The United States political system is primarily bicameral, with a party being put in place to set a specific and collective voting pattern (Schmidt et al., 2018). However, the recent rise of a novel type of politicians and political leaders with political views, which are highly deviant from the average rhetoric, led to the fact that polarization occurs (Anderton, 2020). In other words, one can see that the given trend is primarily fueled by the emergence of leaders with more deviating views.
The polarization is also the result of the American public being distressed and displeased with the lack of sufficient positive changes from the government, which is why older and more centric narratives might be perceived as ineffective. Such a collective belief might be the reason why the public becomes favoring the candidates with more deviating political views from both political parties. It should also be noted that polarization can be triggered by one side, where the opposite party needs to take positions matching in extremity. This cascade of deviations from the center can create an accelerated rate of political polarization in the country. One should be aware that it is highly challenging for a party to remain near the center while the other party moves away from it since it will create a certain imbalance of influence.
In regards to President Biden, he can accomplish the goal of bringing America closer together since he adheres to the centric political perspectives despite him being a member of the Democratic party. One can argue that he can do it by comparing the perception of Biden to previous leaders. For example, Biden is viewed favorably by more than half of the nation, which is significantly higher than his predecessor Trump, who values closer to 40% (Bump, 2020). In other words, the majority prefers Biden as their leader and commander. Such a drastic change is indicative of the fact that the current president is capable of uniting the highly polarized political arena of the United States. The given process will be primarily catalyzed by shifting the range of party deviations closer to the center.
I also think that Biden’s experience in government and negotiating can be useful and building as well as repairing bridges between two parties, which will also greatly contribute to the unification process. Trump’s era has seen the highest rates of polarization due to his supercharged and untraditional rhetoric, which is not the case in regards to Biden. Such measures can even be observed in their statements, where Trump prefers the use of hyperbole due to his experience in the entertainment industry, whereas Biden is more reserved in his remarks. Biden might not be the most effective leader for advancing the interests of the Democratic party, but he is capable of being close to the center, which will make the opposite site closer as well.
References
Anderton, K. (2020). This is the reason American politics are so polarized. Forbes. Web.
Bump, P. (2020). Party polarization hit a high under Trump. Can Biden reel it back? The Washington Post. Web.
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Schmidt, S. W., Shelley, M. C., & Bardes, B. A. (2018). American government and politics today. Cengage Learning.