Why Are We So Politically Divided?
A Divided Government and the Political Divide
by CAPP-USA
“The political community exists…for the sake of the common good, in which it finds its full justification and significance, and the source of its inherent legitimacy”. (Gaudium et Spes, 74)
Divided Government vs. a Political Divide
What is a divided government? A divided government is when different political parties control branches of government (e.g., the Presidency and the legislature) or the different houses of the legislature (e.g., the US Senate and House of Representatives).
Divided government was envisioned by our founders and has been quite common.
The problem is not our divided government, but the political divide.
A political divide is when there is a significant distinction between two groups and can often lead to conflict.
A political divide is not healthy.
The Political Divide in the USA
“America is exceptional in the nature of its political divide”. There is an “increasingly stark disagreement between Democrats and Republicans…about more than just politics and policies.” In October 2020 “roughly eight-in-ten registered voters in both camps said their differences with the other side were about core American values”. (Pew Research Center)
And this divide has rapidly widened since.
Key Questions About America Divided
Is “America divided” our inevitable future? Can the political divide be repaired? Can our political representatives define and advance a common good? Will Republicans and Democrats ever work together again, as clearly called for: “Politicians and legislators…” are “servants of the common good“. (Pope Benedict XVI)
These are important questions on the minds of millions.
Rights are Under Attack in America’s Great Divide
Catholic social teaching insists that “authentic democracy” is possible only in a state ruled by law and on the basis of a correct conception of the human person. (Pope St. John Paul II, 46)
Yet the right to life, on which all other rights are based, is threatened. Political parties are divided on how, when, and even why to defend life. Yet “Anyone who is Christian has a duty…to protect life courageously and lovingly in all its phases.” (Pope Francis) While “[t]hose who hold the reins of government should not forget that it is the duty of public authority by appropriate laws and sanctions to defend…infants hidden in the mother’s womb.” (Pope Pius XI, 67)
Catholics must never forget that “Every child who…is condemned unjustly to being aborted bears the face of Jesus Christ”. (Pope Francis, 2)
Similarly, the death penalty was long considered an appropriate response to the gravity of certain crimes. “Today, however, there is an increasing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes [consequently] ‘the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person’”. (CCC, 2267)
The rights of a family, even the definition of the family, are part of the growing divide. But “it is necessary to educate in the truth and for the truth”. (Pope Benedict XVI) and parents are fighting for this right.
Even the fundamental right to dignified work is not safe from partisan politics. “[T]here is no worse material poverty, I am keen to stress, than the poverty which prevents people from earning their bread and deprives them of the dignity of work.” (Pope Francis)
And the list of ‘core values’ differences does not end here.
What is the Solution to America Divided?
To resolve the political divide, we should turn to the principles of Catholic social teaching: Human dignity, solidarity, and subsidiarity. These principles can bridge the political divide if we are willing to embrace them and move from discussing “positions” to discussing “principles”.
Human Dignity, rooted in a correct view of the human person, is the prime principle of the Catholic social doctrine. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1700) It is “the guiding principle…of all of the Church’s social doctrine”. (Pope St. John Paul II, 11)
“Our duty is to continue to insist…that the human person and human dignity are not simply catchwords, but pillars for creating shared rules and structures”. (Pope Francis, 1)
Learn More about Human Dignity
Solidarity “is a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good” and is fundamental to the Christian view of social and political organization. (Pope St. John Paul II, 38)
“[A]ll men and women are called to live as one, each taking care of the other”. We are “our brothers’ keeper”. (Pope Francis, 3) And Solidarity flows from faith, “Love of neighbor…consists in the very fact that, in God and with God, I love even persons whom I do not like or even know.” (Pope Benedict XVI, 18)
Subsidiarity informs us that decisions in society need to be made at the lowest competent level. Any activity that can be efficaciously performed by a more decentralized entity – should be. Indeed, “No actual or established power has the right to deprive peoples of the full exercise of their sovereignty.” (Pope Francis, 3.2)
It lies at the center of a stable social order and is a prescriptive principle fostering personal responsibility, which is the bedrock of individual liberty.
What Will it Take to ‘Fix’ the Political Divide?
We must participate in politics. Do not sit back and give up or believe others will “figure it out”.
And what is politics? It is the process for arriving at the Common Good which is “the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily”. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1906)
“We, Christians, cannot ‘play Pilate’ and wash our hands…We must participate in politics because politics is one of the highest forms of charity because it seeks the common good. And Christian lay people must work in politics.” (Pope Francis)
However, in these days of hyper-partisanship and ‘cancel culture’ we need to be aware that this “is not easy; politics has become too tainted“. But “Why has it become tainted? Because Christians have not participated in politics with an evangelical spirit“. (Pope Francis)
