The Roots of Modern American Divide & Polarization
Rights are a fundamental part of the United States of America. The creation of these rights and their protection date back to 1789. Politics and rights movements seem much more intense now in the twenty-first century however, the divide in the debate about rights has been around since their creation. More recently this divide has turned to polarization as parties become more partisan on rights issues and the public continues to push these issues. The ever-lasting focus on the different rights of America’s citizens has been a polarizing issue to such a degree that it has caused widespread effects on the USA’s history. These rights have also been a catalyst for change and realignment of political parties. Through these numerous powerful rights movements, we are able to highlight the dramatic effects these rights had on producing the polarization we see in modern politics. There have been a number of large turning points for the American rights movements but none have had the constant ongoing motion that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 has had.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed by President Johnson with many civil rights leaders present like Martin Luther King Jr. It essentially allowed the federal government to enforce the fifteenth amendment, preventing discrimination at the polls. It also targeted states with a history of discrimination, requiring them to get pre-clearance with a federal committee before they could change any of their own laws. Ari Berman’s Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America takes a deep look at how the voting rights act unfolded and how its quick challenge in the courts paved the way for polarization within the country. Berman also gives evidence for the importance of challenging and fighting over legislation in order to follow the constitution. He also takes a deep look at the counter-revolution from the white south who realigned from the Democratic Party to join the Republican Party and use the courts to overturn sections of the act. While the Voting Rights Act pushed for the first big rights movement, it opened the door for many more in the future. In the twenty-first century, we are faced with a number of other rights movements like LGBTQI rights, women’s rights, and even more recently, immigrant rights. Robert O. Self’s, All in the Family: The Realignment of American Democracy since the 1960s, takes a deeper look at modern movements and how these movements developed over the course of the USA’s rights history. Self gives evidence for how these movements have reshaped party compositions, as well as the overall issue focus within politics.
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The author focuses on how the public and political actors fought with words and images, through politics and the law, over what made women and men full citizens of the nation (Self, 3). 1965 was proposed to be “a year test of test” on civil rights (Berman, 15), and it was exactly that. In August after numerous demonstrations throughout the last two years and after a violent protesting period, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This was enacted to prevent discrimination in voting procedures such as literacy tests and poll taxes, finally enforcing the fifteenth amendment, 95 years later. This act saw a lot of divide between the two sides of white Americans and African Americans predominantly in the south. In Ari Berman’s Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America, we are given a deeper insight into the reason for this divide-turned polarization. One particular section of the act that caused further outrage among some people was section 5 which identified states with a history of discrimination and required them to get “preclearance” from a federal body to make any changes to their voting procedure. While this was seen as very controversial, for rights activists this was a major win after all they had been through. John Lewis a well-known civil rights leader was thrilled saying that President Johnson had “helped free and liberate all of us” by signing the act (Berman, 6). Since the act protected the black population's right to vote, the newly registered black voters flocked to the Democratic Party (Berman 72).
This created tension with the Republican Party as they realized they had to do something to get voters to vote against the newly increased voting population for the democratic party. This led to a further divide between the party lines. Due to the seriousness of this change in voting procedures, it was quickly challenged in court, creating more controversy around the act. In 1966, South Carolina challenged section 5 in the courts. Lewis noted the “High price many paid for the enactment of the Voting Rights Act and the higher cost … if we prematurely discard one of the most vital tools of our democracy” (Berman, 7). These challenges and fights between political actors didn’t stop after a few years. Different sections of the act were challenged multiple times in courts, however, the highly dividing section 5 of the act was inevitably challenged again by Shelby County, Alabama in April 2010 filing to the federal court that part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was unconstitutional. After 3 years the supreme court delivered a landmark 5-4 vote decision, stating that the formula determining the states that would be subject to section 5 was unconstitutional. The overturn of this section caused widespread outrage among civil rights leaders.
Lewis stated that it was “a dark moment for our democracy.” And that the court had “put a dagger into the very heart of the Voting Rights Act” (Berman, 9). The Author, Berman, is clearly outraged at the thought of continuing to pick apart the Voting Right Act. “For a country that is famous for exporting democracy across the globe and has branded itself as the shining city on the hill, the United States has a shameful History when it comes to embracing one of its most basic rights at home” (Berman, 11). He continues to delve deeper into the issue identifying how it has become a partisan issue when it shouldn’t be. Voting shouldn’t be a partisan issue since everyone deserves access to vote, however, throughout history, political actors have challenged the Voting Rights Act of 1965, creating a partisan issue out of it. Even while fighting for equality and to end discrimination against minority groups, political actors decided to challenge parts of the act in the courts. Berman writes that as more conservative political actors gain traction, they will continue the “counter-revolution” undoing the protections set by the Voting Rights Act and start to tighten voting opportunities.
The voting population in Southern states changed dramatically as a result of the Voting Rights Act. “The number of black registered voters in Alabama had increased from 113,000 before the VRA to 235,000 by the time of the 1966 Democratic primaries” (Berman, 49). Berman states, that the realignment of the South, which LBJ had forecast in 1964, was close at hand (Berman, 71). This saw the realignment of the South and a further push for the parties to be separated further on the party line. The Republican party conceded that it would be a difficult election, “We don’t see anything we can do this year to pick up the Negro vote” as Harry Dent, a Southern Republican Political strategist added, “President Johnson has it in his pocket” (Berman 71). However, Dent was confident in Richard Nixon gaining white voters in the South as he thought Nixon “affirmed what people in the South wanted to hear” (Berman 72). This is why the divide crack continued to grow and become polarization not just in politics but in the country and in modern America. Robert O. Self’s, All in the Family: The Realignment of American Democracy since the 1960s explores this realignment of the late twentieth century and the separate issues that caused it. Throughout the civil rights movement, political actors continued to fight but they also shifted their political views. 1964 saw the Civil Rights Act signed, followed by the Voting Rights Act of 1965, pushed through by the Democratic Party leaving the southern states feeling attacked. This led many conservative Democrats (who were white) to realign to the Republican Party. “The black freedom insurgency of the 1950s and 1960s dismantled the white supremacist Southern Democratic Party, leading to a partisan realignment…” (Self, 6). This was just the beginning.
Other social issues started to be challenged by the parties, leading to further shifts on these issues, paving way for a realignment of party values and voter issue focus. LGBTQ rights are some of the more recent examples of rights expanding within the United States, however, the debate around this issue isn’t recent at all. “… for much of the 1960s and 1970s, gay men and lesbians (and transgender people) disagreed with one another over the direction of sexual politics” (Self, 9). Self recognizes these issues are so polarizing that even people within these minorities, at times, can’t agree on things, proving how dividing the potentially polarizing these issues can be. This is exactly why we see and history has demonstrated that these issues can be a majorly partisan genre of politics, leading to realignment as parties change their minds on how they view the issues. Sometimes the issues were catering to such a minority that it required shifting an entire conceptual framework of views. For LGBTQ rights this was what happened as they worked to persuade the American public that “homosexuals were not objects of inquiry, victims of illness or criminal deviants” (Self, 79). While yes, this created tension and furthered the party divide, it created a new issue focus on these rights while also expanding their rights through this focus.
Another more recent example that has also dated back to the 1970s is Abortion Rights. As multiple court battles happened across the country, in 1972, Bella Abzug, an American lawyer, and social activist attempted to push a federal abortion rights act which received little interest due to all the ongoing legal work (Q 156). Even in places where it was legalized, the issue was so polarizing some health locations were refusing to go ahead with the procedures creating further tension between rights activists and public health officials. With all this said, the partisanship didn’t stop the activists. They continued to push the issue at hand and continue to help expand the rights of women. Having civil rights constantly in the “hot seat” for the political divide helped expand rights across the board as they became partisan issues and generated more push for lawmakers. Tough issues like this divided, not just the two parties but the political actors inside the parties which is why there was political realignment due to these issues. “1972 was a fulcrum of political and ideological realignment. In this realignment, race, gender and sexuality worked together in complex ways.” Self makes it clear that it’s not just one issue causing the movement but instead, all the issues compressing and helping realign the political landscape across the United States. Since these topics became such poignant issues, mobilization became much easier.
Entire organizations who felt they had a stake in particular issues worked to mobilize their voting bases. An example of this was ministers of churches creating television and radio networks to encourage Christian voters at election time (Self, 340). The other side of the divide also found it easier to mobilize people who took a more liberal view. “In response, feminists, lesbians, and gay men, and liberals of all stripes mobilized to defend the incomplete gains of previous decades.” (Self, 367). In the quote we see the author identify how minorities of all kinds can band together to create a movement against the other side of the divide, causing further polarization. The polarization within politics throughout this period of social welfare issues was a catalyst for mobilization while also expanding the gap between parties. During this time the public’s ideologies were also changing as voters swayed changing their views as parties aligned themselves with different social issues. Voters were so involved with most of these issues it made mobilization much easier as people wanted to ensure their voices were heard and they were able to expand their own rights or suppress others in order to keep themselves above others. Party realignment is inevitable. The balance of power between the parties will continue to change as issue focus in the public eye also changes. The issues that separate the parties will also continue to change as they slide along the left and right scales while the voters also move.
Together, this will all help with the new party identification. In the later twentieth century, Voting and Civil rights were big pushers of party realignment and partisanship which helped pave the way for modern American’s divide. The constant debates and challenges in the courts create tension between the sides and further polarize issues. Political actors and their ability to mobilize citizens were shown to clearly have a large impact over the last 50-60 years. Berman’s, Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America, highlighted the importance of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in shaping the United States. He underlined the consistent challenging of the act by political actors in the courts. Berman closed with how important it is that we continue to allow free access to the ballot and recognize the importance of the Voting Rights Act in today’s society. Clearly, the Voting Rights Act had a profound impact on United States history and continues to, as political actors still look to challenge the policy.
Robert O. Self’s, All in the Family: The Realignment of American Democracy since the 1960s, identified the major factors of political realignment from the 1960s to the 2000s as the liberal system splintered, opening room for the conservative political actors to take advantage and push their issue focus. Self-produced evidence for the polarization of America around social rights issues for LGBTQ, women, and civil rights. He also identified how this issue focus was a major win for these rights groups as it helped expand the rights of these minorities as more people were aware of these issues. Together, there were a number of profound rights movements that led to party realignment in the U.S.A. Political actors’ abilities to mobilize citizens and change the issue focus became a huge part of politics and changed the game of politics forever while also causing political realignment in America.
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