You’re meant to pick a side in regards to political partisanship in the United States. And when you do, there’s an expectation to honor that ideology across a spectrum of issues, and disregard anyone who isn’t with you. 

If this sounds familiar, that’s because it describes the reality we live in right now.

We are more polarized than ever — an often repeated yet undeniably true statement in today’s politics. It describes a burgeoning trend in modern America: where division between partisan groups happens as a result of a steeper ideological divide and the rise of extremist opinions.

The issue of polarization is a deeply complex one, and has been a widely studied phenomenon for decades. A recent study conducted by the University of Cambridge found that from 1988 to 2024, liberals and conservatives have grown more divided on where they stand across a majority of social issues, like health insurance and discrimination against minority groups. 

Consequently, this division is something present throughout college campuses. Factors like race, geography and demographic identities, which coincide with political self-sorting, also inform the choice of where students go to school. This leads to distinct partisan environments, which is important to consider at USC, which hosts a more liberal student body.

In November 2025, USC’s College Republicans notably dropped out of the Political Student Assembly’s semesterly debate, mainly because it could not find enough Republican students to participate, the club said at the time. That particular moment encapsulates a stark possibility where students grow more uniform and thus more polarized. 

Having a more homogenous, harmonious student body seems ideal, but it can lead to highly insulated environments that discourage critical thinking and the acceptance of diverse opinions. On the other hand, the moment also shows how fluid and everchanging student discourse is. Student demographics and the opinions they carry are constantly in flux, which shows that polarization isn’t absolute, and can be dealt with through active changes to a classroom. 

Debate, and specifically integrating debate into academic curricula, may be the answer to teaching these skills. 

People often tie a stigma to debating, where screaming matches and personal insults all seem to inform the motivation to win. This is especially true in politics, where even presidential debates have devolved into entertainment spectacles, especially within the 21st century. 

But when debate is done well and monitored in a productive fashion, it has a massive potential in the formation of well-founded arguments, listening and thoughtful rebuttals. These aspects of debate teach empathy and a more nuanced understanding of the issues going around us.

This type of effect is only exacerbated in political contexts. Debate allows direct access to a range of opinions, and allows students to both climb into a perspective they have never considered and also defend the logic of their own personal values and opinions without fear. 

But, this idea is of course easier said than done. There’s this deeply ingrained idea that there are always places where people don’t talk about politics. The classroom has undoubtedly become one of those places.  

For instance, I remember when news first struck about the escalating conflict between the U.S. and Iran. This is a major hot button issue, and I was anticipating some sort of abstract discussion on it in one of my classes that was about politics. 

No such discussion occurred, and I remember feeling like we lost a great opportunity to tie in USC’s political demographic to understanding complex political issues. My class had a good amount of international students, and I thought this class could be a breeding ground to understanding U.S. foreign policy and getting a diverse range of perspectives on issues related to it.

I was exposed to the reality that the classroom tends to avoid issues such as these because they are seen as contentious and highly controversial. I remember thinking that in situations like these, debate becomes even more important as structured tools that can bring about discussion in a productive fashion. 

Politics will always be a difficult topic of discussion — making it essential to encourage students to get engaged with politics, especially in its involvement in forming a community that is civically engaged and connected to what is happening around them.  

Furthermore, in order to clamp down on this issue of student polarization and utilize debate for this grander purpose, we have to recognize the changes needed to make this vision possible. 

It is not simply the decoupling of politics and education that have to be considered, but also encouraging a culture that embraces nuance in discussion. 

Classrooms can often teach a binary way of thinking, where only one right answer exists and others are disregarded. This takes away the consideration that areas such as politics require for productive discussion. It also encourages more conformity and a lack of agency in where students stand on a range of issues. 

College represents a space where students are meant to explore possibilities and discover the values and ideas they want to fight for. In order to achieve this glossy ideal, however, there has to be a more active effort to restructure the culture surrounding discussion and accepting opinions we don’t necessarily agree with.