Partisanship in America Essay Question?

That is a tough question to answer,

the good or bad part is up to you, but I would say that partisanship is negative only in direct democracies or geographically large democracies (population wise), while this might seem like a no brainer it is something that should be noted in the essay in some form or another.

"I also need to explain what recent presidents have done to enhance or eliminate partisanship in recent years"

That is the hardest question to answer, I will say that environment, specifically external threats have a way of reducing partisanship divisions and enhancing, some of the greatest "uniters" were under times of war and had a common enemy to pit Americans against, in short I think environment has more to due to partisanship than presidential techniques

Our country is very split, and it's a very bad thing. Today, it's mostly the far-left and the neoconservative-right who holds the most power in politics, and their special interests often trump individual freedom, responsible government spending, and working together to better the country. The partisanship is a VERY BAD thing.

Partisanship is pretty easy to spot. In debates alone, you'll hear a lot of logical fallacies being used against competitors, even within their own parties. Even on TV, the media promotes further polarization of the sides...Fox News promotes far-right neoconservative politics, and stations like CNN and MSNBC promote far-left politics. And these stations get a lot of viewers...if people were non-partisan, stations like Fox and CNN would've had to either totally redo themselves and become more neutral, or get taken off the air altogether. However, these stations get plenty of praise. Some people even claim Fox News is "fair and balanced"...and who says it? The polarized neoconservatives.

Partisanship causes team-playing, and makes issues become "points" for the team to make a "score" for their side. It turns issues into being about who supports it. If you notice, a lot of times, people will mimic what their leaders say.

A good example: Americans were pretty divided pre-9/11. However, after the attacks, party-affiliation labels disappeared, and people began seeing each other as Americans. "Conservative" and "liberal" became terms of the past. That is, until the Iraq Invasion of 2003. Then, all of a sudden, polarization became rampant again, and the sides began arguing over why the other side was "wrong" and why they were "right". The 2004 election was nothing but ad hominem attacks and "us vs them" mentality.

If America wasn't polarized, we wouldn't have far-right neoconservatives like Rick Santorum and Sarah Palin getting momentum. Likewise, the far-left wouldn't put in people like Nancy Pelosi. Typically the moderates do not get in, especially with the far-right. This causes ideological, close-minded politicians to gain power, and the country is no longer represented. Do you really see Rick Santorum or Nancy Pelosi representing America? Of what I see, both would represent only their special interests.

It's really a bit of a paradox.

Voters cry for partisanship while retreating to the far corners.

So, the politicians put on "Partisanship Theater" and each side gets to claim they've nobly attempted to reach across the aisle.

The politicians get the points, we get to shake our fists contemptuously at the other side and the same old crap keeps going on.

Notice Truth's answer. That's exactly what I'm talking about. And now a conservative will come along and say the same thing. Truth is right about one thing ... there is no bipartisanship. He's dead wrong, however, on claiming it's solely the fault of conservatives.

Obama has shown America that you can't be bipartisan. Obama bent over backwards to work with Republicans and they didn't budge an inch. Bipartisanship may be a good idea, but it doesn't work today, not with so many billionaires controlling the Republican Party.

Rear admin is mostly wrong. It wasn't Democrats who tripled the previous filibuster record in the Senate, it was Republicans. There are facts, some things are just a matter of public records. Don't just take my word for it, look at the record for Republicans in the last 2 Senate sessions. Since Obama took office