Throughout life, we don’t view all people through a single lens. However, today’s government system has encouraged us to do exactly that.

When it comes to the world of politics, people view others as being on either one side of the fence or another. Nobody is viewed as being moderate, and a gray area is deemed nonexistent.

In terms of how people view the Republican party and the Democratic party, society has become divided between seeing “friends,” and “enemies.” As a result, this ideology is coming at an increasingly personal expense.

When someone insults somebody else’s political beliefs, that person becomes so preoccupied with defending his pride and views, that he doesn’t care what relationships are destroyed, no matter how important or sacred they may be. Once one side of the friendship voices an opinion that a friend disagrees with, everything shifts.

Suddenly, it becomes insignificant how long someone may have been around to provide support and love for a friend. When one side’s opposing political loyalty is revealed, that commitment is finished, and the entire relationship breaks down.

A friend’s personality attributes and kindness are disregarded, and shared history is tossed aside. In other words, once politics enters the conversation, the person who puts up the defense becomes blind to everything other than his own personal beliefs. Just like that, friends are now enemies.

This issue is rooted within the fact that every person has a unique political view. Someone may not be of a different political party, but he may have different reasons for why he supports a specific candidate, and that can trigger an entirely new conflict.

Since his perspective is different, a person may generalize all Democrats or all Republicans as being unjust or cruel, when the person in question only knows a few people who are actually mean-spirited and in that specific political group. However, this divide is also turning many people away from rational judgement, and is instead directing them towards criticism of others’ views.

In today’s society, a person’s governmental perspectives are practically married to his moral code. Day by day, the line that separates someone’s political views from his true character appears to grow thinner and thinner.

People’s focus has drifted from recognizing others’ kindness, to instead berating them for choosing to become a Democrat or Republican. However, this divide may also lead people to realize that they need to end a relationship or friendship for a good reason.

For example, a person might witness religious prejudice occurring in the media, and then find out that his close friend acts exactly the same way. Another example of when a friendship might end for a perfectly valid reason is if someone sees an innocent person of a different race get killed, and then a friend says that he thinks the person deserved it. That reaction exposes that friend’s cruelty and lack of compassion for other races, thus revealing his true prejudice. However, today’s political universe is engaged in a battle that is not focused on having civilized discussions, but rather, on attaining power.

At this point in time, the nation’s political system has entered a stage where people care more about proving their side’s superiority than they do about making logical decisions. Even current political debates have been drained of their civility by the words of “liberal” and “Republican” that are thrown across living rooms.

In today’s world, we are so concerned with being on the correct side of the political spectrum that we don’t care who suffers the consequences as long as we are able to defend our side and personal beliefs.

However, the simple truth is that we’re not going to make any societal progress if this arguing continues. The largest difficulty is that the warring atmosphere has now expanded all across the country.

The politicians aren’t just firing on each other anymore; the public has started pointing fingers at one another as well. If this constant conflict persists, we’ll tear ourselves completely apart. We may be known as the United States, but we need to concentrate on becoming a united people.