Understanding Personal Political Bias

By Andrew John Yanik

Instagram handle: @andre_jyy

June 15th, 2020

In many ways tonight or rather this morning I want to tell anyone reading this that I had very little intention of writing tonight. However, I have been able to do a lot of thinking after a conversation I had with one of my more liberal friends over a horribly violent police shooting, or rather what I felt to be more of an execution, that I want to share with you one of the most important thoughts I have had about politics in a very long time. All too often I feel as though people have an unconditional love or loyalty to their party, candidates, favorite political organizations, or even individual narratives on both sides that allow many of us to overlook our party's flaws whether we be on the right, left, or some sort of third party even. Unconditional love and loyalty in politics is perhaps the most toxic quality of the current United States political mind and I hope not that you abandon your beliefs after this post but instead that you spend more time to understand why you have these beliefs and question your sources of information.

As I look to define it in my own words, unconditional love in politics is the idea that an individual would stand with any politician, cause, organization, or movement no matter how far they drift from the principles. This can come in a variety of actions which can include but are not limited to:

1. failing to condemn the radical members of your party that ruin your parties image and allow your party to become vilified or even hijacked

2. Intentionally overlooking news, media, or information you know to be true but that does not fit the narrative of your respective party

3. When in debate or being challenged about your beliefs, overlooking the error of your party, politician, or organization by pointing out what you believe is a more egregious error on the opposing side of the aisle.

4. Failing to look at individual media on a case by case basis and jumping to the side that your party implicitly supports without watching the piece of media at face value

Example: Republicans jumping to the side of a police officer(s) in a police related shooting or for a Democrat to jump to the side of the individual(s) being detained

5. Pointing out injustice or something that you find wrong about how a politician, organization, or member of society has acted without giving a better course of action or better policy alternative (This is the hardest and most challenging of all of the points listed).

6. This is the final but most relevant at the time that this article has been written: STOP, I repeat, STOP addressing entire groups of people with over generalizing negative or even positive comments. Deny yourself the opportunity to address any given group based on their race, religion, nationality, sex, age, sexuality, occupation, or even political party (when seemingly unnecessary) or anything unchangeable characteristic about as when this is done it openly alienates anyone of that group from joining your cause as they will write off your message as a personal attack, to be demeaning to their intelligence, or as you mis-characterizing what they are saying or doing.

On both sides of the aisle; when all of the points made above are ignored it is often where those who look to divide us; whether it be for fame, profit, or both, can thrive in the chaos they create. I hope that anyone who reads this is able to take a hard look at themselves and say truthfully that they have not done or if they have; will not continue to do these things. It is under these principles that we can once again create the stronger, less partisan nation that once again takes accountability for its flaws while acknowledging its great strengths.

Thank you,

A friend of the United States and all its citizens...

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