The Polarization of Political America

With just over a week to go before election day, most Americans have become skilled at pointing fingers at why the other side is wrong about everything and will ruin the country if elected. This type of polarization that is often the result of election season doesn’t help our already divided country. Politically, it’s an “us vs. them” mentality across the board.

Forty-one percent (41%) of Republicans believe that Democrats love the country, while 46% of Democrats think Republicans love the country. That’s still a pretty significant number of people who don’t believe the other side even cares.

Sixty-six percent (66%) of voters rate relations between Republicans and Democrats as poor. That is double the 30% who say race relations in America are poor.

The vast majority of Republicans and Democrats could not understand why a reasonable person would vote for the other side’s presidential candidate.

One thing we know for sure about the outcome on November 5 is that one side is going to lose. And instead of the good sportsman like conduct we expect of kids in little league soccer, the losing team is going to think they were wronged by the other side winning. We saw violence in 2016 and 2020, and we’re likely to see it again.

This is a depressing thought for many that we’ve become so polarized that neither side can accept the other’s victory. Diversity of thought is healthy for a nation, but the political divisiveness and polarization that has been amplified in recent years does not result in a nation that is willing to work together to solve problems.

This Napolitan News Service survey of 1,000 Registered Voters was conducted online by Scott Rasmussen on September 24-25, 2024. Field work for the survey was conducted by RMG Research, Inc. and has a margin of error of +/- 3.1.

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