on August 12th my long and busy summer
had come to an end and I was on a long
road trip for my parents home in Alabama
back here to West Point
I plan to stop at a friend’s place near
the University of Virginia and as the
day wore on there the news was filled
with reports of riots near the school
late in the afternoon a white
supremacist rally turned fatal when a
domestic terrorists drove his vehicle
through a crowd of protesters two police
officers also lost their lives when the
police helicopter that was observing the
violence crashed these senseless
tragedies brought forth the issues of
political polarization and division
within our nation
to the forefront of the national
conversation over the over the last
several decades America has experienced
an increase in political polarization as
well as a decrease in a unified sense of
community this is evident not only
through the events in Charlottesville
but also through the increased tensions
between people of different political
affiliations and backgrounds Pew
Research recently concluded a study that
surveyed the American public in 1994
2004 and 2014
this study supports the theory that
America is only becoming more and more
politically polarized one metric that
pew used to demonstrate political
polarization where the attitudes toward
the opposing political party the
percentage of Democrats who had a
severely unfavorable opinion of
Republicans has steadily increased by
about 1% per year pew refers to this
metric as antipathy Democratic antipathy
towards Republicans has increased from
16% in 1994
all the way to 38% in 2014 and
Republican attitudes toward Democrats
another metric that excuse me another
metric that that pew used were
ideological curves of each political
party as you can see here over the 20
years of the study these two ideological
curves have grown further and further
apart leaving a widening gap in the
middle this gap is the division that
exists within America today the division
grew so intense that Pew decided to add
another question to their survey in 2014
the question was do you think the
opposing party poses a threat to the
national interest
27% of Democrats and 36% of Republicans
said yes this really puts political
polarization into perspective over a
quarter of each political party views
the opposition as an outright threat to
the interest of the nation now if we’re
currently in the most polarized time in
history you’re probably wondering when
the least polarized time was now
political polarization throughout the
entirety of American history is hard to
measure simply because we don’t have
survey data going back that far what we
do have are the voting records of the
House and the Senate and based upon
these records we can make a hypothesis
about what the political polarization of
America was at that time as you can see
here America experienced a gradual
decrease and political polarization
beginning right around the time of the
beginning of World War two and this
decrease lasted all the way up until the
late 1930s it stayed pretty steady until
the late 1960s and then began to
experience another decrease
excuse me another increase now it’s
difficult to isolate which factors led
to this decrease in political
polarization however a few inferences
can be made simply based upon the time
frame after experiencing two world wars
two world wars and the start of the
Great Depression America had shared
hardships and experiences and a common
goal which was to rebuild and prosper
the face of these devastating events
it’s reasonable to think that these
factors had an effect on the decrease in
political polarization early on I
realized that the racial tensions and
political polarization that the rest of
the country experienced aren’t typically
things that we experienced in the
military I come from an extremely rural
white conservative background with very
little experience in dealing with people
who are different and I’m ashamed to say
that I had many horrible prejudices and
biases against people who were different
from me before I joined the army when I
imagine the far right of today I
imagined myself before joining the army
and I imagine the community from which I
came but I joined the army at 17 and I
quickly realized how wrong those ideas
were working with people from different
backgrounds my prejudices and biases
against those people were quickly proved
to be wrong we were united behind shared
hardships and experiences and a common
goal
through this my personal political
polarization was decreased and it shaped
my worldview today this effect isn’t
partisan the same can be said from
people from far-left backgrounds when I
was enlisted I worked with a young
soldier from Southern California who’s
from a Hispanic community just as
insular as my own his family had very
left-leaning views and he had a very
narrow view of what it meant to be a
white conservative in his mind all white
conservatives were hate-filled and
racist after being in the Army he
quickly realized that that just wasn’t
true working with white conservatives he
realized that they were compassionate
caring people with whom he had things in
common with but they just disagreed on
fundamental political issues
so early on in my career I began to
think critically about the problem of
political polarization
I knew the experience that I had in the
army and I knew why that led to a
decrease in my own political
polarization I also had a working theory
about why military servicemembers are
typically less polarized in the general
public and I had a good idea of why
America was more moderate during certain
periods of history only two questions
remained
the first being could these factors be
replicated on a national level outside
of the military especially given our
current political environment second
question was would these factors have
the same effect on a demographic larger
than the military so as any curious mind
would I began to research and brainstorm
I realized that not only could these
factors be replicated they already
existed outside of the military national
service programs such as Peace Corps
Teach for America and AmeriCorps
provided civilian replications of these
specific factors they brought people
from different backgrounds together and
through shared experience and hardships
United them behind a single unified
cause knowing this one question still
remained would these factors have the
same effect on others as it does on the
military that’s a difficult question to
answer
theoretically it should if you bring
people from diverse backgrounds together
you expose them to one another and you
have them work together they get to know
each other on a personal level and can
no longer vilify one another they
realize that their preconceived notions
prejudices and biases just aren’t true
and through that experience they should
become less politically polarized this
is even more important today when so
many people live in isolated communities
with little diversity and are constantly
bombarded with messages and images that
fit within their narrow political
ideology national service programs may
be one of the few times that these
people are brought out of their echo
chamber in February 2017 I serve as a
delegate to the Nash
campaign for civic and political
engagement which was intended to serve
as a year-long bipartisan working
conference focused on reunited in
country after the diverse election
excuse me
after the divisive election of 2016
through this experience I worked with
students from diverse racial Geographic
political and economic backgrounds to
brainstorm initiatives to bridge the gap
and reunite the country my ideas on
national service were further reinforced
by a close mentor of mine former Army
officer Joe Goodwin who organized this
conference at Harvard as I began to
share my ideas on national service with
my fellow delegates and Joel ended his
authority to give us more legitimacy my
group began to form a plan to bolster
national service programs current
national service programs are funded
under the Edward M Kennedy Serve America
Act a largely Democrat bill now this
bill is discretionary spending so it
must go through the appropriations
process at least once a year in the 2018
appropriations process these programs
were in grave danger in the face of
budget cuts given this my group and I
decided that the best way to expand
available national service opportunities
and secure funding over the long term
was to rebrand the serve america act to
be more bipartisan after some discussion
we decided that the most effective way
to do this would be to reintroduce the
bill including the current provisions as
well as provisions for an infrastructure
repair program and associated skilled
labor training and apprenticeships this
initiative was intended to one expand
available national service opportunities
to make the bill more bipartisan by
including Republican priorities such as
infrastructure repair and job creation
and three issue a call to national
service in order to decrease
overall political polarization ideally
we favored compulsory national service
but given the current political
environment we decided that this was the
best met it was the best method we’re
currently getting into the specifics of
the legislation some of which I’ll go
over with you now as I said there will
be an infrastructure repair program and
associated skilled labor and training
apprenticeships but in addition to this
we plan to put offices in insulated
communities be that rule or urban in
order to bring those diverse populations
together and have them work outside of
their echo chamber we’re currently
talking about the specifics of this
legislation and drafting it and meeting
with policy makers to make progress on
this plan national service is an
important aspect of American life
throughout American history the most
unified times have been from the
beginning of World War one all the way
up until the late 1960s during this time
Americans had shared experiences and
hardships and a unified identity as
Americans these factors can be
replicated today we can unite not only
to rebuild the failing infrastructure of
America but also to build an inclusive
national identity in which our
relationships with our neighbors are no
longer defined by our narrow political
ideology but are instead characterized
by the quality of ourselves with a call
to national service focus on
infrastructure repair we can unite the
diverse population of America behind
this national cause and thereby decrease
political polarization as a nation we’re
currently divided but with a future of
strong national service we can once
again truly be the United States of
America thank you you
had come to an end and I was on a long
road trip for my parents home in Alabama
back here to West Point
I plan to stop at a friend’s place near
the University of Virginia and as the
day wore on there the news was filled
with reports of riots near the school
late in the afternoon a white
supremacist rally turned fatal when a
domestic terrorists drove his vehicle
through a crowd of protesters two police
officers also lost their lives when the
police helicopter that was observing the
violence crashed these senseless
tragedies brought forth the issues of
political polarization and division
within our nation
to the forefront of the national
conversation over the over the last
several decades America has experienced
an increase in political polarization as
well as a decrease in a unified sense of
community this is evident not only
through the events in Charlottesville
but also through the increased tensions
between people of different political
affiliations and backgrounds Pew
Research recently concluded a study that
surveyed the American public in 1994
2004 and 2014
this study supports the theory that
America is only becoming more and more
politically polarized one metric that
pew used to demonstrate political
polarization where the attitudes toward
the opposing political party the
percentage of Democrats who had a
severely unfavorable opinion of
Republicans has steadily increased by
about 1% per year pew refers to this
metric as antipathy Democratic antipathy
towards Republicans has increased from
16% in 1994
all the way to 38% in 2014 and
Republican attitudes toward Democrats
another metric that excuse me another
metric that that pew used were
ideological curves of each political
party as you can see here over the 20
years of the study these two ideological
curves have grown further and further
apart leaving a widening gap in the
middle this gap is the division that
exists within America today the division
grew so intense that Pew decided to add
another question to their survey in 2014
the question was do you think the
opposing party poses a threat to the
national interest
27% of Democrats and 36% of Republicans
said yes this really puts political
polarization into perspective over a
quarter of each political party views
the opposition as an outright threat to
the interest of the nation now if we’re
currently in the most polarized time in
history you’re probably wondering when
the least polarized time was now
political polarization throughout the
entirety of American history is hard to
measure simply because we don’t have
survey data going back that far what we
do have are the voting records of the
House and the Senate and based upon
these records we can make a hypothesis
about what the political polarization of
America was at that time as you can see
here America experienced a gradual
decrease and political polarization
beginning right around the time of the
beginning of World War two and this
decrease lasted all the way up until the
late 1930s it stayed pretty steady until
the late 1960s and then began to
experience another decrease
excuse me another increase now it’s
difficult to isolate which factors led
to this decrease in political
polarization however a few inferences
can be made simply based upon the time
frame after experiencing two world wars
two world wars and the start of the
Great Depression America had shared
hardships and experiences and a common
goal which was to rebuild and prosper
the face of these devastating events
it’s reasonable to think that these
factors had an effect on the decrease in
political polarization early on I
realized that the racial tensions and
political polarization that the rest of
the country experienced aren’t typically
things that we experienced in the
military I come from an extremely rural
white conservative background with very
little experience in dealing with people
who are different and I’m ashamed to say
that I had many horrible prejudices and
biases against people who were different
from me before I joined the army when I
imagine the far right of today I
imagined myself before joining the army
and I imagine the community from which I
came but I joined the army at 17 and I
quickly realized how wrong those ideas
were working with people from different
backgrounds my prejudices and biases
against those people were quickly proved
to be wrong we were united behind shared
hardships and experiences and a common
goal
through this my personal political
polarization was decreased and it shaped
my worldview today this effect isn’t
partisan the same can be said from
people from far-left backgrounds when I
was enlisted I worked with a young
soldier from Southern California who’s
from a Hispanic community just as
insular as my own his family had very
left-leaning views and he had a very
narrow view of what it meant to be a
white conservative in his mind all white
conservatives were hate-filled and
racist after being in the Army he
quickly realized that that just wasn’t
true working with white conservatives he
realized that they were compassionate
caring people with whom he had things in
common with but they just disagreed on
fundamental political issues
so early on in my career I began to
think critically about the problem of
political polarization
I knew the experience that I had in the
army and I knew why that led to a
decrease in my own political
polarization I also had a working theory
about why military servicemembers are
typically less polarized in the general
public and I had a good idea of why
America was more moderate during certain
periods of history only two questions
remained
the first being could these factors be
replicated on a national level outside
of the military especially given our
current political environment second
question was would these factors have
the same effect on a demographic larger
than the military so as any curious mind
would I began to research and brainstorm
I realized that not only could these
factors be replicated they already
existed outside of the military national
service programs such as Peace Corps
Teach for America and AmeriCorps
provided civilian replications of these
specific factors they brought people
from different backgrounds together and
through shared experience and hardships
United them behind a single unified
cause knowing this one question still
remained would these factors have the
same effect on others as it does on the
military that’s a difficult question to
answer
theoretically it should if you bring
people from diverse backgrounds together
you expose them to one another and you
have them work together they get to know
each other on a personal level and can
no longer vilify one another they
realize that their preconceived notions
prejudices and biases just aren’t true
and through that experience they should
become less politically polarized this
is even more important today when so
many people live in isolated communities
with little diversity and are constantly
bombarded with messages and images that
fit within their narrow political
ideology national service programs may
be one of the few times that these
people are brought out of their echo
chamber in February 2017 I serve as a
delegate to the Nash
campaign for civic and political
engagement which was intended to serve
as a year-long bipartisan working
conference focused on reunited in
country after the diverse election
excuse me
after the divisive election of 2016
through this experience I worked with
students from diverse racial Geographic
political and economic backgrounds to
brainstorm initiatives to bridge the gap
and reunite the country my ideas on
national service were further reinforced
by a close mentor of mine former Army
officer Joe Goodwin who organized this
conference at Harvard as I began to
share my ideas on national service with
my fellow delegates and Joel ended his
authority to give us more legitimacy my
group began to form a plan to bolster
national service programs current
national service programs are funded
under the Edward M Kennedy Serve America
Act a largely Democrat bill now this
bill is discretionary spending so it
must go through the appropriations
process at least once a year in the 2018
appropriations process these programs
were in grave danger in the face of
budget cuts given this my group and I
decided that the best way to expand
available national service opportunities
and secure funding over the long term
was to rebrand the serve america act to
be more bipartisan after some discussion
we decided that the most effective way
to do this would be to reintroduce the
bill including the current provisions as
well as provisions for an infrastructure
repair program and associated skilled
labor training and apprenticeships this
initiative was intended to one expand
available national service opportunities
to make the bill more bipartisan by
including Republican priorities such as
infrastructure repair and job creation
and three issue a call to national
service in order to decrease
overall political polarization ideally
we favored compulsory national service
but given the current political
environment we decided that this was the
best met it was the best method we’re
currently getting into the specifics of
the legislation some of which I’ll go
over with you now as I said there will
be an infrastructure repair program and
associated skilled labor and training
apprenticeships but in addition to this
we plan to put offices in insulated
communities be that rule or urban in
order to bring those diverse populations
together and have them work outside of
their echo chamber we’re currently
talking about the specifics of this
legislation and drafting it and meeting
with policy makers to make progress on
this plan national service is an
important aspect of American life
throughout American history the most
unified times have been from the
beginning of World War one all the way
up until the late 1960s during this time
Americans had shared experiences and
hardships and a unified identity as
Americans these factors can be
replicated today we can unite not only
to rebuild the failing infrastructure of
America but also to build an inclusive
national identity in which our
relationships with our neighbors are no
longer defined by our narrow political
ideology but are instead characterized
by the quality of ourselves with a call
to national service focus on
infrastructure repair we can unite the
diverse population of America behind
this national cause and thereby decrease
political polarization as a nation we’re
currently divided but with a future of
strong national service we can once
again truly be the United States of
America thank you you
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