Contributions to Political Divide

People often wonder why politics is so divisive. Often, the easiest thing to blame is differing opinions. However, this is not accurate. Differing opinions can live in harmony and coexist in a way that stimulates thought and discussion from opposing viewpoints. Divisiveness is a byproduct of misinformation and dogmatic thinking. Think of it this way. In decision making, a person will weigh variables in a given equation to formulate a position or decision. When these variables are corrupted or tainted by misinformation, division and confusion ensues. If one is dogmatic about the misinformation, divisiveness is the result.

Media’s Influence in Political Divide

You see, it’s not one side of the isle that is misinformed while the other is informed. Often, the media outlets and distribution channels for political content carry biases. People comment about Fox News and CNN being polar opposites. Each reports the news with a biased political agenda. Further, media outlets are paid via advertising dollars. Meaning, if they can stir division into the populus, they keep you glued to their station while making money off your viewership. All the while, the American public is being conditioned to division.

Focus on the Legislation, Not the Legislators

United we stand is not a tagline, it’s a requisite for democracy. Does this mean we agree on everything? Absolutely not. However, if people debated the spirit of bills and legislation in lieu of political party divides, more would be accomplished. So how can the population receive information on legislation free of bias, and in a format that is understandable? People angrily defend their political party’s politician more fervently now than I have ever witnessed. Maybe I am missing something, but I have been underwhelmed by our political representation for some time now. It had puzzled me why people defend mediocre candidates with such passion. That is until I realized, people haven’t had appropriate visibility into legislation that is actually affecting their lives. As a result, the public is left with biased media outlets that push a divisive agenda continuously for viewership. Politicians utilize the same approach to gain votes, majorities, and power. In recent times, our society has never been so passionate and so misinformed as we are today.

Focus on the Solution

In a high functioning democratic society, the spirit of legislation is the debatable format in lieu of political mudslinging. Why attack another party when you can attack the spirit of their legislation? It is the legislation that we as a people must live by. It is the legislation that governs our society and our daily lives, not the political representatives. If we can agree that focusing on the legislation is important, then how do we solve against the time restraints and legalese required to remain informed?

Polity Brings Transparency to Legislation

Polity is a legislative technology company that translates complicated legislation into layman’s terms, free of political bias. Moreover, Polity covers all levels of government, from Federal, State, City Council, and School Boards to name a few. Polity’s technology creates a dashboard that automatically pushes topics of interest to you based on your search criteria and allows its users to remain informed. Further, Polity allows users to debate the spirit of legislation and communicate with political representatives that create, endorse, and vote on legislation that affects your daily life. For me, rather than getting fired up from watching the news as a bystander, I’d rather take an active role in shaping our country while making informed decisions. With Polity, I can now do this in a matter of minutes.

Author

Rob Comeau is a minority partner and advocate of Polity, L3C. Comeau also is the CEO of Business Resource Center, Inc., a business consulting and M&A advisory firm. Comeau holds various board and equity roles in business services and technology companies. He earned his MBA from the Presidents and Key Executives Program at the Graziadio Business School at Pepperdine University.