Assignment 16- Max Carlson- Speech

  In the recent House of Representatives votes over the Impeachment articles, the voting was almost split perfectly down party lines. For article 1, 229 out of 233 Democrats voted yes, and 195 out of 197 Republicans voted no. This split parallelled in the vote for article 2, with 228 out of 233 Democrats in favor and 195 out of 197 Republicans opposed. Party-Line votes are votes in which 90% or more of Republicans oppose 90% or more of Democrats. According to Jared Heyman, From 1955-2015, the percent of votes that end up as Party-line votes rose almost 30%. In this speech, I’ll discuss why this is an issue, then detail what we can do to avoid this in the future.

People vote alongside people that they agree with, what’s the issue? These groups that people identify with often lead to uninformed voters voting for whichever representative aligns with their party, regardless of who they are or their platforms. There are only 2 main political parties in the United States, so people join either one for a variety of reasons. This large variety shows that just because you’re of the same party as a candidate, doesn’t mean you necessarily share views. 

Think of a Utah story for a moment. A republican Governor runs unopposed, and wins (obviously). The strange thing about the victory, however, is that less than half of his votes were for him directly. 30% of the votes were write-in, after something was exposed about his past after nomination. Another 25% of the votes he got solely for belonging to a party. “Straight-ticket votes” counted for a quarter of the votes for the governor of an entire state. This scenario shows people’s inherent trust of the system. They vote for their party, oblivious to the fact that most of his party now oppose him after the scandal was released.

The polarization of parties isn’t only bad for the voting citizenry of America, but causes severe polarization in Congress as well. As mentioned before, the two parties voted almost entirely on party lines regarding impeachment. This same instance happened regarding the appointment of Justice Brett Kavanaugh in late 2018. One Democrat voted to approve him, and other than that the parties were completely split. Political parties rely so heavily on Party-line voting that Political Whip exists as a job. For those who don’t know, a Whip is a party official whose job it is to ensure that party representatives attend voting sessions and vote, not how the representative feels, but along with the party’s point of view.

Another example of how reliant on party line voting political parties are is Gerrymandering. In the US, redistricting occurs every 10 years, and parties are constantly looking for ways to secure just one or two extra votes in congress.

So what can we do? Political parties lead to radicalization and polarization but we can’t just turn our entire political system around. What’s the point of giving this speech if we do nothing concrete to make change? Well I ask all of us, as we turn 18 and register to vote in the next year or two, to be more aware. To not just vote with your party,  but to use your vote to create change in the world. Vote for someone who you believe can make the change you want to see in America happen, regardless of their party. Our votes have power. We have the authority to elect who we want to the US Government, so don’t waste that right just voting for someone because they picked the same group as you did back when they were 18. Analyze your candidate’s views, and make sure that’s what you want in your government for the next 2 years.

I understand that a lot of the time, we will vote straight ticket and only for our registered party, but as long as we do that because of who they are or what views they hold, and not just what party they are, that’s positive change in America.

Berman, Dan. “How Senators Voted on Brett Kavanaugh.” CNN, Cable News Network, 6 Oct. 2018, www.cnn.com/2018/10/06/politics/how-senators-voted-on-brett-kavanaugh/index.html.

Cai, Weiyi, and K. K. Rebecca. “How Democrats and Republicans Voted on Trump's Impeachment.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 18 Dec. 2019, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/18/us/politics/trump-impeachment-vote.html.

Heyman, Jared. “On the Hidden Link between Partisanship and Oligarchy.” Medium, Medium, 9 Oct. 2018, medium.com/@jaredheyman/on-the-hidden-link-between-partisanship-and-oligarchy-cac6405f4192.

Kuo, Didi. “The Paradox of Party Polarization.” The American Interest, 27 Mar. 2018, www.the-american-interest.com/2018/03/27/paradox-party-polarization/.