Introduction
The deepening polarization of identity politics and partisanship in the nation’s current political climate has resulted in tarnished and divisive patriotism. The United States politics polarization has been on the rise for a long time to an alarming level. However, patriotism is the most incredible thing that is very important in a country. Patriotism contributes to the country’s development (Huddy & Khatib, 2007). However, today the extended polarization of United States politics has significantly impacted patriotism as partisanship is seen to be emerging especially among the political class. Patriotism entails the love of a country and dedication to the country to do the best out of it as well as the willingness to selflessly defend it and work to ensure its development (Huddy & Khatib, 2007). Partisanship on the other end undermines unity social cohesion and is a recipe of misunderstanding since it creates biases. Partisanship promotes unfairness which undermines overall development and effective progress. In essence, partisanship influences people’s attitude in a variety of things such as the perception of the identity of each other and as well as the allocation of national resources. With the polarization of the United States politics, patriotism has been undermined as partisanship has been adopted by politicians as they seek to serve their interest especially after being elected (Ikuenobe, 2010). Nonetheless, in the event of threats towards the country, the president tends to evoke a sense nationalism to overrule partisan divisiveness and mobilize patriotic support. However, the concern of whether partisanship supersedes patriotism is still questionable. Thus resulting in the hypothesis, to what extent does partisanship supersede patriotism in the United States and how efficient is partisanship as compared to patriotism? Currently, partisanship has become more salient than patriotism in the United States as politicians strive to address their self-interests. This research will seek to determine whether partisanship in the country, especially in political perspective, supersedes patriotism. The research will also seek to address the following research questions; how is partisanship practiced in United States politics? What is the public perception of partisanship and patriotism? What is the difference between the impacts caused by partisanship and patriotism?
Background Information and significance
Both partisanship and patriotism are practiced in United States politics. However, the United States citizens have strong national identities which are capable of being activated especially during challenging circumstances or threats to mitigate partisan divisions. The United States is based on democracy and partisanship that has been witnessed to be gaining root in American has been a threat to democracy (Sheets, Domke, & Greenwald, 2011). Democracy provides Americans with the ability to coexist without any biases and equally treated. Currently, the United States is in a suicide watch as partisanship is deemed to be overcoming patriotism in its political leadership. Partisanship is a reality. For instance, the current United States president Donald Trump has proven to be a partisan president in his style of leadership. His partisan leadership is claimed to be a danger to the country. He has proven to be promoting racial disparity and biases. He has ordered the deportation of non-American residents out of the country (Sheets, Domke, & Greenwald, 2011). Actually, partisanship is characterized by lies given by our leaders as politicians promise to be patriotic during campaigns then end up being partisans when elected. Most of the American presidents such as George W. Bush, Barack Obama amongst other presidents have practiced patriotism which significantly contributed to their success in both development and effective leadership (Lazere, 2003). For instance, Obama selflessly gave up everything and applied patriotism in is leadership through embracing and supporting democracy for all and equal treatment for everyone in the United States. Actually, our future relies on the patriotic Americans placing the nation over partisanship.
However, evidence of increasing polarization in the United States politics implies that the core of partisanship in various application fields is expected to increase with time (Parker, 2010). Analyzing partisanship in the United States politics suggests that the dramatic rise of partisan conflicts is representing one of the most salient developments in politics. Patriotism is believed to be more beneficial to a country than partisanship and that is why patriotism should be over partisanship. This research is necessary so as to determine whether partisanships supersede patriotism in the United States. This research is actually important since it will be able to analyze the political structure of the United States together with their leadership styles. This will help in determining and identifying and distinguishing between partisanship and patriotism amongst our leaders and also amongst the society’s conduct. The research is also important as it will be able to establish the link between the impacts of both partisanship and patriotism on development. Therefore this research will eventually assist in ensuring a clear understanding of partisanship and patriotism and as well provide one the capacity to determine which between the two should be over the other. Additionally, this research will enable us to determine between partisanship and patriotism which is more beneficial to the people equally thus promoting a common good for the people.
Literature Review
According to Grove (2015) polarization in the United States politics has significantly increased as partisanship has taken a larger part of domestic as well as foreign policies influences. Partisanship has been greatly adopted by the Congress as they seek to address their own issues that serve their interests. Politicians such as senators tend to use partisanship when in Congress to ask and follow up for the people they are representing to benefit more at the expense of the other citizens. Politicians often need to be reelected to office and therefore applying partisanship serves best their interests of serving only the people they are representing at the expense of others so as to meet the promises they made during campaigns. However, these people benefit the most at the expense of others. Politicians do not find patriotism to be appropriate for them since it does not serve their best interests efficiently but rather the interests of the people (Grove, 2015). Patriotism considers all people to be equal and serves them equally and is mostly to the interest of the citizens as they benefit the most as compared to politicians. Alleviated polarization impacts the manner in which politicians govern and the way they conduct their campaigns. Deepened partisan identities establish encouragements for candidates motivating them to emphasize more on time and resources to mobilize their support-base rather than winning over moderate candidates and independent candidates from the other party. Partisanship enables them to focus on supporting the people so as to gain popularity and be voted for. This in return benefits the people as it focuses on rewarding and supporting the common people (Grove, 2015). Nonetheless, the political class, therefore, is much focused on partisanship especially during the campaign period only supporting and rewarding through the implementation of important projects to benefit a specific population who can vote for them. This, therefore, contributes to development to some extent.
It is important for politicians running for the presidency to exhibit intense national pride. It appears to be sensible assuming that candidates who devote to a serious campaign and dedicate a lot of time, effort and money in acquitting the highest political position must truly love the country (Miller, 2003). However, genuine love for the nation is hard in assessing them politically or measure therefore giving them the opportunity of depicting themselves as being patriotic people. George W. Bush as well as Michael Dukakis’ efforts to convince the people of their patriotism was outstanding including the consequences of Dukakis for failing to achieve it. Partisanship is portrayed in the event when John Kerry, a Democrat candidate of 2004 undermined his war-hero title and questioned his patriotism (Miller, 2003). Moreover, it is determined that public participation is important in ensuring the effective development of the country. Coordination between the public and the government facilitates development. Therefore, patriotism is deemed to be more effective than partisanship in terms of development. Contrary to this, the evaluation of the presidential debates identified that candidates often associate themselves together with their candidacies to the country portraying themselves as candidates who are in love with the country and very patriotic but they put their own interests first.
Whenever national and religious identities are theorized within American presidential politics, partisan realisms must be considered. Precisely, we postulate a bipartisan differentiation in God as well as national politics. In essence it is implied that Republican candidates are viewed to be more of Christianity as well as more American as compare to democrats candidates (Onuf, 2012). However, such association must matter extensively for the attitude of republican voters as well as vote choice compared to democratic voters. Such dynamics are expected for many reasons. Moreover, Democrats tend to be willing to participate in serving the country such as joining to serve the military more than the Republicans. It is determined that most of those in the military are Democrats since they have a higher capacity and will of sacrificing to join and serve in the military to protect and defend the country (Onuf, 2012).. On the other hand, it is also determined that the Republican have a low tendency of dedicating themselves to serve in the military. Because of their partisanship concept, they are unwilling to serve in the military or participate in voluntary services for the nation. Furthermore, it is identified that patriotic people have a tendency of participating in development activities either self-initiated development activities or government projects. Additionally, Patriotic citizens tend to be more peaceful and follow and obey the law to the latter in the United States. It is determined that the Democrats obey laws more as compared to the Republicans who tend to often disobey laws. The patriotic people tend to give up everything for the country (Onuf, 2012). Also, Patriotism encourages support that benefits all citizens in the entire nation instead of residents from particular state; patriotic activities are anticipated to mobilize more support both from within the country and other countries even given that polarization is at peak. Patriotism encourages fairness and equality. Consequentially, patriotism also encourages support from well-wishers since it entails humanitarian services that are important in ensuring the well-being of the people.
According to Ikuenobe (2010) Partisanship is deemed to cause divisiveness. In essence, partisanship is associated with selfishness and unfairness. For instance, in the case whereby Donald Trump was so desperate to win the 2016 United States presidential election and called upon Russia to hack emails patterning to Hillary Clinton and the kremlin affair showed that their might have been Russian interference in 2016 presidential election thus portraying the characteristics of partisanship which is unfairness (Ikuenobe, 2010). Partisanship can lead to mistrust among people or towards political leaders. For patriotism, fairness and openness are encouraged.
Research Methods
To answer the hypothesis of this research, I will conduct a case study on the perception of whether partisanship supersedes patriotism. The study will focus on the Democrats who are considered to be patriotic and the Republicans who are considered to be partisans. To be specific the study will focus on the political leaders from both sides and also the perception that their followers have too. The study will use different methods of data collection as well as analysis which include; observation, questionnaires, interviews, and consultation from people. Observations shall be carried out on the political leaders from sides, the Republican and the Democrats including their supporters. This will take a period of two weeks of observing their conduct, which will be done for at least five to six hours per day while recording the findings. Second, questionnaires shall be prepared and provided to the citizens to fill in the details. The selection of the participants shall be done randomly using the random stratified method. This event will be done on a single day. Third, a number of interviews will be conducted on five supporters of the Republican and also five supporters of Democrat. The interview will take approximately twenty minutes for each of them. This will be carried out on one day. After carrying out all these activities, the information obtained and recorded will be compiled sorted than analyzed.
Preliminary Supposition and Implication
I believe this research is important as it will facilitate further research. This research will be useful in the literature review in future research. Also, this research will add significant knowledge to the discipline of political science since it will provide solid evidence regarding which one between partisanship and patriotism supersedes the other. It will help to clear the air and make it vivid to everyone that which one among the two supersedes the other one backed up with the evidence thus helping to end the confusion and doubts that exists regarding the topic. This is also important to a politician since it will act as a knowledge base for them whereby they can refer to in order to get information about the appropriate and effective leadership concept that is appropriate to them. Additionally, this study will help in getting the perception of people towards leadership which will be important in defining the appropriate leadership for a certain population.
Summary
In essence, both partisanship and patriotism are practiced in United States politics. They both have a significant influence on the country’s development but vary in the extent of development impact. Therefore, there is a big difference between patriotism and partisanship. Patriotism entails the love of a country and dedication to the country to do the best out of it as well as the willingness to selflessly defend it and work to ensure its development. Partisanship on the other end undermines unity social cohesion and is a recipe of misunderstanding since it creates biases. Partisanship promotes unfairness which undermines overall development and effective progress. In essence, partisanship influences people’s attitude in a variety of things such as the perception of the identity of each other and as well as the allocation of national resources. Deepened partisan identities establish encouragements for candidates motivating them to emphasize more on time and resources to mobilize their support-base rather than winning over moderate candidates and independent candidates from the other party. Partisanship enables them to focus on supporting the people so as to gain popularity and be voted for.
Patriotism considers all people to be equal and serves them equally and is mostly to the interest of the citizens as they benefit the most as compared to politicians. Coordination between the public and the government facilitates development. Therefore, patriotism is deemed to be more effective than partisanship in terms of development. Also, patriotism attracts support from well-wishers since it entails humanitarian services that are important in ensuring the well-being of the people. The debate about which supersedes the other between partisanship and patriotism has existed for a long time and still remains unanswered. It is important to determine which one among the two supersedes the other since it will consequentially enable us to determine the most superior and most effective leadership style in terms of development. Therefore, this study is important as it will ensure that it analyze and conclude which among the two supersede the other while providing solid evidence.