DUELING COLUMN: No, Your Politics Don’t Determine Who You Are

Julian Michanie/Staff Writer

It’s no secret that the United States has become more divided than ever, but a key question arose for me during election season this year: when did we start using political beliefs to judge the character of a person?

Although political beliefs constitute a variety of factors, whether it may be how we grew up, where we grew up and the people we grew up with, it is important to see that who we vote for should not be used as an assessment of our personality and beliefs. Not only is it dangerous to suggest that voting for a particular candidate has a direct correlation to who we are as people, but it only deepens the division we have already created in our society. 

Who we vote for should not be used as an assessment of our personality and beliefs.

According to a study conducted by the Pew Research Center earlier this year, 55% of people on social media in this country are worn out by political posts and discussions. The effect? People naturally swarm to crowds or groups of people who have like-minded opinions, so the chances of your post reaching out to someone who may not agree with you are slim. 

The study also shows that 71% of Republican users say that they have found it frustrating and stressful to talk politics with people who they disagree with on social media, and 69% of Democratic users feel the same way. 

So people continue to post their beliefs online, but is there any real discussion happening?

Well, going by a recent poll conducted by the Cato Institute, the idea that people are reaching any sort of positive conclusion when discussing their political beliefs is false. Nearly 62% of Americans say they feel that today’s political climate prevents them from voicing the things they believe in, for fear of offending others. This is 4% up from 2017. It is becoming increasingly evident that on both sides of the spectrum, there are political beliefs people don’t feel comfortable opening up about, so should these factors play a role in determining one’s personality?

Just because we support a particular candidate does not mean we necessarily have to like them as a person — or even agree with all of their policies. It’s an argument that can be made for supporting our favorite artists, as well. The same way liking XXXTentacions’s music does not mean you support violence against women, supporting Bill Clinton, John F. Kennedy, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nelson Mandela or Martin Luther King Jr. does not mean you would cheat on your wife. 

Using political beliefs as a way to criticize, coerce, or genuinely associate someone’s character with a certain set of ideals only furthers the division in our country, and if any party wants a chance to be successful if they win the election, they must learn to open the conversation to different ideas and point of views.

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Photo by 🇨🇭 Claudio Schwarz | @purzlbaum on Unsplash