The U.S midterm elections are just around the corner. Politics are becoming murkier by the day and nobody knows where the next election will go. The confidence in Joe Biden’s administration is dropping rapidly and U.S citizens’ understanding of their own politics is not helping the situation.

People in the U.S. do not know the basis of their own political opinions, or how they were developed entirely. The ignorance that this causes only increases political polarization, creating an unnecessary divide. 

Voters no longer care about the beliefs and thoughts of the political party opposing them. They simply refuse to listen to anything that opposes their beliefs, unless it is specifically being used to argue with that person.

Age plays an important role in one’s political development. The elderly tend to become more conservative in their views, as they have seen more throughout their lives, and thus become more jaded towards politics. 

While being jaded can be a good thing, it also breeds ignorance. There is a reason that there is a stereotype in the U.S today about the southern elderly being hostile towards outsiders, deeply conservative and standoffish. The longer that they become closed off to other views, the more stuck in the past they become. While their opinions may not all be wrong, they can no longer support or express it in any meaningful way.

Generally speaking, political opinions are decided by what people have experienced during their life. The more someone works with people, the more humanitarian their thoughts become, resulting in more left leaning tendencies. The reverse being that the more complex thoughts that are required in someone’s job, the more right leaning they tend to become.

Looking towards the culture of the U.S. today the trend can easily be seen. Musicians, artists, social workers and other professions today are clearly seen to be more politically liberal. This is because of their connection with their audiences, and the focus they put on that audience. 

Because they tend to think of the lives of the average person, they focus on humanitarian goals through their political policies, ultimately leaning towards a more democratic form of socialism.

Outliers can clearly be seen. For example, President Ronald Reagan was an actor before he was elected. Due to common stereotypes nowadays, many would think because of his past he would have been a part of the Democratic Party, but he was actually a member of the Republican Party. Reagan cut government spending dramatically during his administration and programs, if they were deemed to be useless, were ended. He also implemented strict inflation control. His economic policies would be dubbed “Reaganomics” by economists and “Reaganomic” policies clearly align with hard-line conservative views.

Conservative politicians are generally from economic or business-oriented backgrounds. Of all the 46 U.S presidents, 19 of them were Republican.

These presidents come from fairly impoverished families. President Abraham Lincoln was born in a shack in Kentucky. President Herbert Hoover was the son of a blacksmith. An Army Officer, Ulysses St. Grant was the son of a leather worker and a store clerk.

Showing almost the exact opposite situation from the Republican examples, all but around 30% of the Democratic presidential candidates come from extremely wealthy families. Notable examples include Lyndon B. Johnson, Andrew Jackson and Harry S. Truman.

Through the conditions of their upbringing, it can be clearly seen that Democratic presidents become more comfortable with spending money in a wider manner due to their familiarity with having large amounts of wealth.

All of these men have clear lines that are able to be drawn to their childhood and their later politics, a tendency commonly overlooked by modern citizens.

Through modern ignorance, we have divided ourselves into arbitrary factions and generalized the people in said factions.

 We no longer think of the people behind the politics, most people today need to be able to put their own feelings aside and have a clear conversation with the people that they disagree with. Not only to give them a better understanding of their knowledge, thought processes and opinions, but to also better understand where other people get their ideas from.