America’s political landscape has become increasingly divisive, especially in recent years as a result of our social media and search engine algorithms.

We haven’t been this divided as a country since the 1850s, and while it certainly isn’t as bad as it was in the 19th century, the divisiveness we are experiencing today is still problematic and scary.

Less than a century ago, our political landscape looked much different. Democratics and Republicans had a lot more in common, so much so that the American Political Science Association saw this as a problem and called for political parties to be more distinguishable for voters. 

To achieve this, the APSA created a report on political parties in 1950 called “Toward a More Responsible Two-Party System,” which called for parties to be stronger, “more tightly organized,” more differentiated — therefore, more divided.

Since then, we have seen more and more division in each presidential election. While this may have seemed like a good thing at first, over the decades it has proven to be the opposite. 

Democrats and Republicans have become so divided that we can hardly agree on the same issues. Politics has become a kitchen table talk taboo, and has ruined and prevented relationships between friends and family

Since when did we put so much weight on our political ideologies? Since when did they become more important than our interpersonal relationships? My hunch is this 1950 report.

Unfortunately, all of this has been made worse as a result of algorithms. Whether we’d like to admit it or not, a lot of us get our news from social media, which is highly filtered by our personal algorithms. Even if you don’t, these algorithms still exist on search engines via ‘cookies.’

Cookies are data collected by your web browser based on previous internet activity in order to give users a more personalized browsing experience. This means the content you view is tailored to your unique interests and biases so that you’re more likely to click on content, and therefore more likely to use their site.

While this sounds like a good thing, and certainly can be helpful for those online shopping endeavors, these algorithms ultimately keep us stuck. We only see what we want to see, and we only see content that we already agree with, fueling the divisiveness even more.

This is not only harming our country, but us as individuals. This sort of ideology directly opposes the liberal education we go to college for, which preaches open-mindedness, critical thinking, humanity, connection and truth-seeking. 

As William Cronon says in ‘Only Connect,’ his essay describing somebody with a liberal education, “they respect rigor not so much for its own sake but as a way of seeking truth.” We seem to be concerned not with the truth, but instead with being right. 

We need to prioritize the truth over our egos, and this can be done when we prioritize human connection and instill empathy, open-mindedness and critical thinking. As Martha Nussbaum says in her essay, “The Liberal Arts Are Not Elitist,” “…we seem to be forgetting about the soul. About what it is for thought to open out of the soul and connect a person to world in a rich, subtle and complicated manner.”

Truth be told, Republicans and Democrats aren’t that different. We all have great joys and great hurts, successes and failures, loved ones and enemies. In a political sense, we have the same end goal — for this country to succeed, taxes to decrease and to have a reliable leader.

We are all human beings with valid feelings and idiosyncratic perspectives, and we must come together to find a solution that fits the majority. We cannot do this unless we come together.

This divisiveness is incredibly harmful for our political landscape, and our overall well-being as a country. As Abraham Lincoln said in his famous “A House Divided” speech, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” While we definitely shouldn’t go back to the political climate of the 1850s, this statement still rings true 166 years later. 

Our algorithms may make this difficult, but all you need to do is stop scrolling your usual feed and start searching for differing views and opinion.

We must stay vigilant and utilize our liberal education, and stop relying on our For You pages for information.