Stuck in the Middle-Political Polarization

When it comes to politics, I’ve considered myself a closet democrat, an

Independent, a democrat with republican tendencies, and the list go on. But even with renaming myself, I was always aware that I was a “in the middle of the road” type of person. For one, I can make a statement for and against most issues. That doesn’t mean I don’t take a stance. It just means that, more than likely, you won’t find me outside with a sign in my hand, walking and protesting. Not that I haven’t done that before..but I’m just not that person any longer.

When it comes to getting my news, I watch my local stations, throw in a bit of social media, and turn to the world news in the evenings. There was a time when I was addicted to CNN and watched all the political rhetoric day in and day out. That girl doesn’t live here anymore, either. Somewhere down the line, I started to realize that news is biased, and I subconsciously watched shows that catered to my beliefs. If a profile was built on me, like a serial killer profile, one of my traits would be …watches CNN.

When the new Governor of Arkansas was campaigning, in one of her commercials, her children were sitting on the sofa with the remote, and her daughter said, mom, the boys are watching CNN, and she protested dogmatically, absolutely not! I gasped! No, she didn’t. And seriously, that is when I realized that all news is really political.

The Governor of Arkansas is republican. I can’t say far right because I haven’t really researched enough to know all of the qualifications. But it does make sense if she has those feelings about a news station. In an article entitled Political Polarization & Media, by the Pew Research Center, https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2014/10/21/political-polarization-media-habits/, a study was cited regarding how people get their news. According to the study, which analyzed people who identified as consistent liberals, mostly liberals, mixed, mostly conservatives, and consistent conservatives, people on the far left or right have different methods of obtaining news. There is also a great gulf fixed between those two groups. According to the article, far rightists (if that is a word) primarily get their news from one source (FOX news) and have a distrust of most other news sources, save FOX news. Also, all of their associates more than likely share the same political views. The far leftists get their news from more news sources, but those that aren’t considered mainstream, like NPR, for example. The one thing they do have in common is that they follow and discuss politics closely.

People like me, I will call us the “middles” we get a little bit of news from everywhere.

But politics is not our main focus. We do have our opinions, and we do take a stance, but we are not going to create a riot or charge up in the White House. It’s just not that serious. And while some of the issues we get upset over are serious, we “middles” know that it’s going to be what it is going to be. The tide will change because it always does. Hopefully, one day, one of those tides will find us surfing above it instead of drowning in it.