Elitists have taken over the decisions that belong to everyday Americans. Graphic by Anna Gritzenbach.
REESE PARADOWSKI | OPINION COLUMNIST | rparadowski@butler.edu
The emergence of party politics and the growing polarization of the Democrat and Republican parties are insulting to America’s everyday working-class people.
The categories of a red or blue state are far from the truth, and there’s nothing I hate more. America has institutionally set up its election system to favor elite donors and disregard what voters actually want in a candidate.
If elections were truly the people’s choice we wouldn’t have corrupt career politicians and billionaires in office.
America’s political landscape didn’t always look like this — issues like abortion, welfare and immigration were not tied to one party. If you go back far enough in U.S. history, the vice president was the second-place contender in the presidential election. Today, it is laughable to think of Kamala Harris as Donald Trump’s vice president, because now we’re comparing apples to oranges.
There are many factors at play in America’s journey to where we are today. Politics are always changing and the Democratic and Republican parties’ stances have surpassed the need for terms like red states and blue states.
Up until the 1960s, neither the Republican nor Democratic parties associated themselves with social issues like abortion and welfare. It wasn’t until the Civil Rights Movement that the two parties produced stances on social issues.
Assistant professor of political science Rhea Myerscough said the shift started to happen due to political turmoil.
“As the Civil Rights Movement grew and was putting more and more pressure on national leaders, there was pressure for one of the parties to endorse equal rights for Black Americans,” Myerscough said. “[President] Kennedy is kind of sympathetic to it … he’s assassinated … and so Lyndon Johnson then picks it up, and the Democratic Party becomes the party affiliated with civil rights.”
After this historical event, many pro-segregation Democrats at the time then shifted to the Republican Party and anti-segregation Republicans shifted to the Democratic Party. This was a major step in the development of the modern parties we see today.
When Republicans claim they are the party of Lincoln I cringe because — I promise you — you and he have very different ideas of what a Republican is.
The Electoral College is set up to disregard independent candidates. With a winner-takes-all mentality, this further polarizes states into being red or blue. Modern elections have boiled down to key swing states.
Lecturer of political science Ryan Daugherty says the Electoral College has several issues.
“It places an emphasis on land over people,” Daugherty said. “Now there’s roughly seven states that matter … it deemphasizes people … it’s not because there’s something so special about Wisconsin or Michigan, but [the Electoral College] advantages states that are competitive because they are tightly close ideologically.”
The Electoral College makes voters feel useless when their vote doesn’t represent how their state voted — I know this was the case for me in the 2024 election. It creates a counterproductive mentality that doesn’t excite people to show their voice.
The 2024 election was an election of identity politics. Two candidates that could not be more different — with two different directions they wanted the future of America to be.
But the term identity politics often gets misinterpreted.
“When we say identity politics, it’s almost always referred to exclusively in terms of minority, whether racial minorities, gender minority and so on,” Daugherty said. “But the election was identity politics, and the return of white masculinity, but those are the same people that are saying, ‘No, we need to get away from [identity politics,’] but they were very, very clear that if [they were] elected, this is what [the Trump administration] will entail.”
The return of Donald Trump and his brand of white masculinity to the White House has empowered his platform to redefine the Republican party as essentially the party of Donald Trump.
Now Trump loyalists and MAGA have created a sub-party of the Republican Party, further dividing themselves with the political ideologies of the majority of Americans to fuel elitist agendas.
But how are they winning so many states?
Generally, gerrymandering and redistricting have been used in American politics to influence election outcomes in a specific party’s favor. Although Trump won the popular vote in this election, he lost it in 2016, and he still won that election.
Senior political science-psychology major Anna Foster says state legislators have the power to skew their state’s electoral map.
“[Gerrymandering is] basically where the majority of states have the power,” Foster said. “The state legislator has the power to draw district lines however they please. The only caveat is it needs to be along the one-person, one-vote, so equal or proportional representation within districts. So a lot of state legislators, both Republicans and Democrats after every census, whenever their seats are allotted, they draw the district their way. They call it ‘packing and cracking’ So they want to pack together their opposition’s supporters in as few districts as possible.”
The concept of packing and cracking views elections as games to be won, not votes to be earned. I consider this tool to be undemocratic in practice.
This strategy is corrupt and dehumanizing to voters. It makes me reassess why politicians run for office in the first place — because it’s clearly not for us.
There has been much speculation on how to combat the polarization of states.
“The ideal would be getting rid of the Electoral College,” Daugherty said. “If you do move to a popular vote, you need to get every single vote you can. And so that puts every state technically on the map, because you’re not competing for states, you’re competing for votes across the country.”
In fact, 63% of Americans support moving to a popular vote to elect the president. Clearly, this would be the simplest solution to truly reflect the one-person, one-vote philosophy. But it would take bipartisan support in Congress to pass, and it’d truly be a miracle if that happened.
The Electoral College kills individuals’ political ideologies.
“[The electoral votes] are not often very descriptive of where people actually are,” Myerscough said. “So I think that kind of perpetuates this idea that citizens are just so different, we’re so divided. And I think that’s actively harmful to our politics. I think it makes students not want to think about politics, not want to participate in politics. This framework that has come from elites that shapes our national politics is just really toxic, and, more importantly, not very accurate of where a lot of individuals are.”
The Citizens United v. FEC ruling in 2010 gave the green light to wealthy donors and corporations to spend unlimited funds on campaigns. From then on, candidates have been bought and paid for by special interest groups to fulfill their ambitions.
The influence of corporate greed is nothing short of un-American — undermining the working-class people, overshadowing grassroots political campaigns and silencing issues that affect everyday people.
Change starts with one person, and I know my generation has seen the consequences of party politics and corporate greed; we shouldn’t get discouraged by how damaging the electoral system is but rather keep voting, keep showing up and never back down from our values.