Opinion column by Jack Voight, Staff Writer

Politics tend to bore me. Policies and arguments that seem to go in endless circles, without real progress in either direction. I’m fine with the concept, but there is an element of politics that my government is lacking, something I’m looking for but I am not quite sure. But is this just me? Maybe there is a reason I feel this way, and maybe it’s not just because I don’t like listening to old people on the news. Maybe it’s deeper than that…

Maybe it starts with political extremism, which seems to be everywhere nowadays. When one person has an opinion on a matter up for discussion, the political opponent seems to have a completely adverse opinion. What makes matters worse is that most of the time, the polarized left and right wings are unable to come to a compromise, causing even more turmoil. Compromise should be simple and smooth, but our government seems to drag it out and – if it does happen for a particular issue – make it take longer than anyone needs it to.

The reign of partisan media is among us. TV ratings are all about stirring up the most drama and interesting storylines you can, and unfortunately, unbiased, moderate media is not what gets this done. If you watch a popular TV show, what do you call the viewers who watch it all the time? A fanbase. The news is looking to create a fanbase, and to do this, channels have to appeal to a certain group of people. And this is how the Fox News and MSNBCs are created.

Isn’t it rather hypocritical that these news industries are often warning the public about fake news, when some elements of the media are controlling and manipulating the way their viewers understand the news themselves?

But why is this a bad thing, you say? Because it is feeding an already-biased fanbase the news it WANTS to hear, and in this fashion can create an almost false sense of reality in a voter’s mind. The want to seek out information that will support your own hypothesis, and ignore the information that could disprove it, is a basic human function. This is extremely dangerous and is the cause of a larger political gap than ever before.

I personally have no strong political views or opinions at the moment. Maybe this will change in the future due to a personal experience, a large issue I’m behind, or maybe I will just change my mind as I get older. But I don’t want my youth to be a reason to discount my opinion on our political system. I think it could even be a reason to listen to me, since I essentially have no say in our government at the moment, yet I’m still writing this.
I would like to show just how easy our government can be taken control of if you position yourself with the right people. Conforming to the system essentially gives you a chance, no matter what your real ideology is. The person I want to use as an example is someone many of you know of – our President, Donald Trump.

I’m not here to bash or promote Trump, just to show some information to further solidify my case. Trump, the face of the Republican Party, has changed his political affiliation five times. He was listed as a Democrat as recently as 2008. A man who is now the subject of immense controversy, at times even within his own party, and disliked by most liberals was categorized with the same beliefs as Democrats in recent years.

Trump also had experience running for president, unbeknownst to some voters – two other times, actually, and the first time he did not run for a Republican bid. In 2000, Trump ran for a bid in the Reform Party after being persuaded by fellow member, Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, to run for office. His campaign didn’t gain much ground and was treated somewhat as a joke by the public, viewed as a publicity stunt.

But fast forward to 2018, and look where Trump is now. What did he change about his campaign? He ran for a Republican spot. The only way a political figure can become influential in our country is if they associate themselves with one party or the other and generalize their opinions and thought processes to fit themselves in this group. It is nearly impossible to have your own ideology or policy to win elections nowadays. Independents in office are a rarity that only occur when the political opinion is split too much between the major party candidates.

And even when independent/third-party politicians win a seat, they often have ties to one of the major parties. It is increasingly difficult to have influence and a stance on our country’s politics without an “in” with a party. Politics nowadays are all about association, and association means conforming ideas into a similar zone, with no radicalistic ideals allowed. I believe our country could use some strong change. What significant changes can any party make before the other tears it down? Not much. This is a catastrophe and shows our rather backwards thinking as a nation that is very innovative on some fronts, but lacks a better revolutionary idea for government.
But is “revolutionary” the right term for a non-partisan government style? Because the first president of America, George Washington himself, was critical of the two-party style. In his farewell address he states that the growth of political parties will lead to more corruption, and could even endanger the democracy at some point. Now that I have someone somewhat important to back my opinion, I think I have a reasonable claim.

Our first president was fearful on the effects that this squabbling and argumentative nature of a dual party system would lead to the downgrade of popular sovereignty. But did we listen to him? No. Now some odd 200 years later, this partisanship is more extreme than ever, with no clear path to a better system. A dramatic change to this easily exploitable, biased and argumentative style government is needed. There is other countries that have slightly different democratic systems, and I think we should look into these a little bit. But one thing is certain, we need to come up with the answer together. Until this change is made, I have no interest in participating in our government.

Sophomore Jack Voight can be reached at [email protected].