The Great Divide

With the election coming up everyone seems to have picked a side.  Except for a few outliers our country is divided between donkeys and elephants.  Something that really caught my eye was how much members of the facebook community have felt the need to broadcast their alliances, plastering my wall with statuses and memes from each side.  All this has me wondering, why are we so divided?  Why do so many people publicize their opinion of being far to one side, while almost no one publicly looks at all the facts and tries to choose some logical middle ground?

I think that we as Americans often feel obligated to be associated solely with one political group.  It seems to me like people hold the opinion that you are either a democrat, a republican, or you are nobody.  Now I cannot call myself innocent on this matter.  I've grown up in a household of democrats coming from a long line of democrats, and its almost comforting to just call myself a democrat without actually looking and any facts and thinking about why.  Having some opinion, even if uneducated, can feel a lot better than hanging in the middle until you actually have enough information to decide.


I think that our country could be better off if people stopped concentrating so much on their affiliation and more on their own opinions on specific matters.  If you disagree please share your opinion in a comment.