With this month being the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, politics, American values, and patriotism have been on many people’s minds.
And if you’ve followed politics or discussed politics with friends or family in recent years, there’s a good chance you’ve heard the sentiment that Americans are more divided than ever before. Political ads feel more negative, news headlines often seem exaggerated to increase clicks, politicians use scare tactics in speeches and on social media, and we’ve seen an increase in regular political protests as the new normal. For folks that try to avoid politics, or those that just engage passively as part of their regular news consumption, it can seem like these polarizing trends are all there is.
All of which is to say, if you’re someone that sees the current state of American political beliefs as divisive, you’re not alone. According to a 2024 Gallup poll, 80% of U.S. adults believe we are divided on our values, more than 10% higher than a decade prior. And along with the belief that we are more polarized, we also have more negative perceptions of those across the political aisle. A 2022 Pew survey found that 72% of Republicans surveyed believe Democrats are immoral, while 63% of Democrats said the same about Republicans, up from 47% and 35% respectively in 2016. Similar trends were found when asked if rival party members were closed-minded, dishonest, lazy, or unintelligent. Overwhelmingly, trends would suggest Americans believe the gap between different sides of the aisle is widening, whether that be by values, intelligence, or otherwise.
But is this widening gap reflective of reality, or is it a misperception? The answer, it seems, is both.
One of the main reasons so many Americans may hold unfounded beliefs about rival party members is that when asked, they reveal they are basing this perception on political leaders, not average voters. And when looking at politicians, Americans are correct. A Pew study done in 2022 found that over the last 50 years, Democratic politicians have gotten slightly more liberal, while Republican ones have gotten much more conservative. But perhaps more interestingly, the middle ground has vanished. Pew found that in 1970, 144 House Republicans were less conservative than the most conservative Democrat, and 52 Democrats less liberal than the most liberal Republican, but by 2004 that number was zero on both sides, with elected officials instead falling in line with their party cohorts. And research from the Institute for Democracy, Journalism and Citizenship argues that as social media and news stories have increasingly given more attention to the most extreme party members, other politicians have also grown more extreme, perhaps to keep up in the popularity race, and viewers see these politicians as representative of their party as a whole. After all, these more extreme politicians are the ones who win elections.
But despite the polarization of politicians, the values of average American voters tell a different story. A 2021 survey asked Americans to both rank their personal values and to rank those same values based on what they believed others cared about. What the survey found was that voters across the aisle overwhelmingly shared the same values, while also believing their values had little in common with others. The same survey also found that people largely overestimated the partisanship of rival party members, assuming around 20% of party members were moderate, when reality shows moderates made up more than 50% of both parties. Across the board, studies have shown that voters are both less partisan than their elected officials, and less partisan than the rival party believes them to be.
Which brings us back to America 250. At 250 years, our politicians are more polarized than any other point in recent history, but our communities aren’t. So how do we reflect on our past, celebrate how far we’ve come, move toward our goals for the future, and dispel the notion that we don’t share the same values with our neighbors?
As always, it starts with educating ourselves and getting involved in our communities. Whether that’s reading about American history (check out this booklist for ideas!) or seeking out news articles from opposing political viewpoints, learning about how we got here and what those different from us actually believe lessens the sense of division or hopelessness. Getting involved in community initiatives or local politics, where politicians are more approachable and less polarized, allows us to get to know the folks representing us directly. And participating in difficult discussions like the National Week of Conversation each April opens the door to challenge our perceptions about others’ beliefs.
Honoring America’s 250th anniversary is complicated for many, but at the end of the day it is about coming together to celebrate democracy. And to quote Ken Burns’ documentary series The American Revolution, “Democracy is an active verb. You don’t have to agree, you just have to be involved.”