By TAYLOR THOMPSON
Tiger Media Network
As the 2024 election draws near, many Americans feel that politics are more divided now than ever. With partisan tensions running high and growing political discourse on social media, this sense of divide is difficult to ignore. Students and professors of the Fort Hays State University Political Science Department weigh in on this issue, offering insights on the past and current political landscape, how mass media contribute to this issue, as well as ways to engage in respectful political conversations online and in person.
Although the political outlook today seems grim, the parties may be more agreeable now than in the past. Christopher Olds, a professor in the Department of Communication Studies, Law and Political Science, takes a look at these historical trends, referencing the Partisan Conflict Index, which studies the level of disagreement in the federal government.
It revealed that political tension is not as intense as we have seen in the past during events, such as the government shutdown in 2013 or the attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act in 2017. He states that current political tensions have not reached previous heights of disagreement.
“The reality is, despite a lot of the heated rhetoric that we’re seeing in this election cycle, the level of conflict between the two parties is not as high as it was during President Obama’s administration and during President Trump’s administration,” Olds said.
Despite this, why do we continue to see a growing amount of political slandering and discourse in the media? This could be due to the anonymous factor of social media, making hate speech easier than ever.
“One of the dangers of social media and online discourse is the anonymity factor,” Olds said. “Some people create profiles that aren’t really attached to their real name, so they feel like they can just fly off the handle, be incendiary, be antagonistic, and use coarse language.”
News outlets only further amplify this issue. American Democracy Project Student Coordinator Madison Albers says there has been an increasing amount of disputing and unprofessionalism between the parties in recent years.
“There’s become kind of a news frenzy around politics recently because they’ve gotten so unprofessional, and have aimed at that kind of unprofessionalism,” she said. “There’s not really much respect for either party. And there’s a lot less of crossing party lines and bipartisan bills that we see passing.”
Sarah Braun, a senior studying political science, agrees that news outlets can encourage political discourse by creating divides to garner more viewers and reinforce existing political views.
“And I think part of it has to do with news outlets competing. So they feel the need to up the entertainment. So they end up going a little bit more divisive with it in order to retain viewers,” Braun said. “If somebody follows one political party, then they end up going to news outlets that align with that. So then you’re only seeing something that is going to support your own viewpoints.”
Olds says that to have meaningful conversations, it’s important to engage in local dialog within the community, as well as having face-to-face conversations.
“Just ways of encouraging civil dialogue and having that face-to-face interaction, I think is quite meaningful, because if people are not talking to people of different political ideologies face-to-face, they’re not being exposed to and considering different viewpoints,” he said.
According to Student Government Association Legislative Affairs Director Grace McCord, at the end of the day, regardless of whether you are conversing online or in person, it’s important to continue to hold respect and empathy for the other person.
“When things get heated, it’s really important to remember that yeah, this is a sensitive issue for you, but it’s a sensitive issue for this other individual as well,” she said. “And everybody deserves to be treated with respect.”
Albers adds that while we can’t control what politicians or media say, we can control how we engage in everyday conversations.
“We can’t change what people in the media are saying,” Albers said. “We definitely can’t change what the presidential candidates are saying, but we can change what we can control and how we react in those tough conversations.”