Grady Jakobsberg

Period 4
DBQ: Political Ideology
The extreme difference of political ideology in the United States diversifies society, but
poses as a blockade towards the government. Different demographic and ideological groups
define themselves too rigidly, making it nearly impossible for representatives to come to any
form of a compromise. This diversity goes to waste when Americans isolate themselves within
groups that share the same beliefs as them. That self-segregation and the extreme polarization of
groups have nothing but negative effect on American politics. Ideological differences in the
United States create a problem for government by causing policy gridlock and unfitting
representation of the people.
Americans are isolating themselves into groups that share the same values as them
resulting in the decided voters being more politically stubborn. Bill Bishop, graduate of Duke
and co-author of respected book The Big Short: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America is
Tearing Us Apart, wrote, Weve built a country where we can all choose the neighborhood and
church and news show most compatible to our lifestyle and beliefs. Americans have been
sorting themselves of the past three decades into ideologically homogenous communities
(Document 3). Bishop is referring to the self-segregation that Americans have created for
themselves so that they will not have to deal with diversity. This lack of tolerance in society is
transferring over to government, as representatives have become less willing to see the other side
of an issue. One example of this is how political parties drown out independent voters, making
them choose democrat or republican, causing a lack of balanced representatives that stay under a
largely independent platform. A PEW research study (Document 7) showed that 38% of voters
call themselves independent, growing approximately 8% since 2002. Therefore, voters are forced

to choose one party or the other, with no independent candidates, even when they are already a
large demographic. This diversity creates non-representative representation of the people in
government. This is exemplified in a graph created by Jesus Diaz that accurately displays to
voting habits of Americans (Document 12). A presidential election result map is displayed state
by state, red having voted Republican and blue having voted Democrat. It appears that most of
the states voted Republican even though the Democrats won, with little pockets of states having
voted Democrat. Another map in the document shows the same election, but takes county and
population into account. This creates a blend of red and blue through the country, showing that it
then looks more balanced. The relatively balanced country is not shown through the actual
process of presidential elections as shown in the first map. The ideological change from state to
state show a disproportionate amount of people voting Republican. This shows how ideological
diversity is not accurately shown in representation, causing a non-representative representation in
government.
It is clear that differences in ideology creates dispute amongst Americans and politicians,
which once again, divides our nation. A Facebook post by Nancy Pelosi, the House Minority
Leader, criticizing a quote by John Boehner on how Congress should work, received a string of
comments ranging from, Democrats are the cancer as are progressives and, Go learn to read
Nancyyou MORON, to Doing their job? I think not! (Document 9). All the comments were
on one side of the spectrum or the other, either criticizing Pelosi or completely supporting her.
This plainly shows the lack of tolerance that a highly diverse populous brings to government.
That being said, it also clearly demonstrates how extremists are easily able to dominate politics.
With fewer involved and decided citizens contributing to the decisions, issues become more
black and white. Moris Fiorina, a political scientist, wrote Americans are deeply divided on

fundamental issues making it seem like there are two different nations - the liberal blue versus
the conservative red states. Fiorina is pointing out how America appears to be divided,
confirming that ideological divisions tear the country into opposite groups. Fiorina states later
that he doesnt believe this is a problem, but that this image comes about because of small groups
of activist getting more involved and polarizing the issues. This may be true, but it still means
that ideological diversity is creating challenges for government to accurately represent the
different opinions. James Wilson, president of the American Political Science Association,
wrote, The intensity of political divisions in twenty-first century America encourages our
enemies, disheartens our allies and saps our resolve- potentially to fatal effect (Document 1).
Wilson is a widely known political scientist and American academic who has published multiple
books and articles as well as having held many high government positions. Wilson may be
exaggerating the situation, but he is right in stating that political divisions will divide the United
States, destroying our inspiration and determination.
Overall, diversity in political ideology creates problems for the government in the form of
political gridlock and inaccurate representation of the people. Extreme polarization of political
issues creates gridlock as neither side is willing to compromise for the other. As the United
States becomes more diverse the government cannot represent the many different values of
American citizens, making representation not representative of the ideologies of the population
as a whole. With this problem present, the United States government needs to adapt so that it can
accurately represent the American people while learning to avoid gridlock. A graph showing the
ratio of bills proposed to bill passed since the 1980s would be useful in order to show that as
time goes by and America becomes more diverse, government has more trouble compromising
on decisions to get laws passed.