American Government

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American Government
“A House Divided” is a documentary written and directed by Shane Smith, Vice Media CEO. The 71 minute somewhat documentary studies the issues created by the growing political polarization of America (Fienberg 1). The film adduces the dispute that political biases that surfaced in 2008, during the presidency of Barack Obama has under Donald Trump’s presidency, attained its rational extreme. Political polarization can be defined as the difference of opinion of political approaches to ideological boundaries (Steinberg 1). Political polarization in the film comes through in the fact that, even though President Obama is the main name on Smith’s interview file, the documentary seems to favor the works of Frank Luntz, a Republican strategist and the former speaker of the House John Boehner. Moreover, the film depicts how there has never been a Democratic legislator who has ever gotten the kind of exposure Boehner had when it came to elucidating how certain parleys crumbled in the first term of Obama’s presidency (Grobar, 1).
Being the first African American president in America, Obama’s term was put under a lot of scrutinies as supporters and nonsupporters conflicted on political matters and their beliefs and values. In addition, I find it very peculiar how some people treated the African-American race as a nonfactor or afterthought and why various individuals were so adamant to work against President Obama. Most of my family members and friends do enjoy sharing our different political views and even though at times conversations get really heated up when it comes to justifying our leaders, I believe such debates are healthy and enables individuals to question some of the political moves being made.

It is hard to understand someone who holds different ideological values and beliefs. Diverse political opinions are one of the major societal strife as people end up hating each other due to their political ideologies. I learned to respect and accept that we all have different perspectives when it came to our political ideologies and that is no reason to hate each other. Politics in the US have become acrimoniously polarized over the years. With time I believe that politics can be less polarized and it could start with voter participation. Having high voter turnouts in their elections could possibly employ a reasonable influence. Moreover, moderating the voting process and registration could noticeably enhance turnout.

Works Cited
Fienberg, Daniel. “’Vice Special Report: A House Divided’: TV Review.” The Hollywood Report, 12 Sept. 2016, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/vice-special-report-a-house-divided-review-954837.
Grobar, Matt. “’A House Divided’ Host & Vice Founder Shane Smith On Political Journalism In A Post-Truth World.” Deadline, 11 Aug. 2017, HYPERLINK “http://deadline.com/2017/08/a-house-divided-shane-smith-vice-emmys-interview-1202147132/” http://deadline.com/2017/08/a-house-divided-shane-smith-vice-emmys-interview-1202147132/.
Steinberg, Brian. “Vice’s Latest Documentary Takes Journey to Strange Land: Washington, D.C.” Variety, 7 Dec. 2016, http://variety.com/2016/tv/news/vice-shane-smith-documentary-obama-trump-boehner-1201935982/.