Showcase of Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors (SOURCE)

Partisanship in Contemporary America: Insights from Jacksonian Era Politic in the Modern Day

The topic of this paper is partisanship in contemporary America and how similar it is to the Jacksonian Era politics of the nation’s past. Primarily this paper takes a non-partisan stance on analyzing objective effects and how partisanship reproduces itself within the boundaries of societal institutions. Therefore, it is natural that the disciplines selected to reflect this are sociology, political science, and history. Sociology is a necessity to include whenever there is an analysis done of institutions within a society and their effects on said society. Political science is a necessity due to the nature of partisanship being primarily based on political polarities, especially in the United States. Finally, history is included as an addition due to the lessons from political history in the United States still being relevant especially after the 2016 presidential election. Although these disciplines are distinctly separate, I have discovered that many of the issues that these disciplines directly deal with tend to cross disciplinary lines. Partisanship and its effects pull in so many disciplinary contexts that having three disciplines just to talk about it is required to get the full context, rather than recommended. Thus, my analysis starts with the question of: when compared to the modern political climate, how does the Jacksonian Era offer insights as to how we are so divisive in contemporary America? In my research, I have discovered that rather than there being any singular, observable reason we are so divisive, we have instead seen a return to the Jacksonian Era distrust and rivalry between political parties that have contributed to a rise to figures like Donald Trump whom rely on demagoguery over rational policies.