Americans Are Deeply Divided — And It’s Not Just Because of Trump

• America is enduring one of the most polarizing election seasons in its history

• Condescending elites and ideological trends helped bring the country to this point

• After two explosive presidential elections, incivility threatens to become a new normal in American culture

The story

At a recent rally for Vice President Kamala Harris in Houston, Texas, a video went viral that showed a man holding a microphone, arguing with rallygoers. Then, a young, left-wing woman walked up to his daughter seated in a stroller, leaned close to her face, and shouted, “I don’t give a f*** ‘cause your dad’s a b****.”

While others laughed, a woman holding a Harris-Walz sign pulled her away from the stroller. The fellow rallygoer appeared to tell her, “No, not the baby,” with a look of concern.

Days after the incident, President Joe Biden publicly dehumanized people who want former President Donald Trump re-elected. In response to a comedian’s joke at a Trump rally about trash dumping in Puerto Rico, Biden said, "The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.”

The US is approaching one of the most polarizing elections in its history on Nov. 5. In today’s toxic political environment, screaming at infants and labeling half the country “garbage” is all but expected behavior.

Joe Biden represents part of what brought the country to this point. Political elites have spent years dividing Americans, condescending to them, and retaliating against the populist sentiment that allowed Trump to become the face of a new movement.

The Obama era

By the time Trump ran for office in 2016, his critics had spent years stoking division, setting the stage for voters to elect someone fundamentally different from traditional politicians.

Former President Barack Obama campaigned on the promise of “unity over division” after the contentious presidency of George W. Bush. As the nation’s first black president, Obama represented hope and progress to many, but quickly used his platform to demonize his opponents.

Obama made the so-called “war on women” a central theme of Democrats’ campaign against pro-life values, portraying the convictions of countless men and women about unborn life as misogynistic.

He falsely framed border security concerns as centered around “the fear that somehow America’s character is going to be changed” if the country permits entry to too many individuals of “darker shades.”

Polls show that most Americans thought race relations worsened under Obama. He pushed racial narratives around controversies such as the killing of Trayvon Martin, a black teenager who was shot after bashing another man’s head on the ground.

“That could have been my son,” Obama remarked about Martin before going on to discuss “racial disparities.”

Sometimes, Obama was explicit in his contempt for ordinary Americans. In 2008, he referred to struggling small-town communities in Pennsylvania as “bitter.” “They cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

Former Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton continued this trend by infamously describing Trump supporters as a “basket of deplorables.” Once she lost to Trump, she wrote a lengthy book blaming nationwide sexism and racist white voters.

Establishment figures often complain that Trump undermines democratic institutions, especially by contesting the 2020 election. They rarely say the same about Clinton, who claimed Bush was “selected, not elected” and spread debunked theories that Russia put Trump in the White House.

On the issues

The American left has moved further leftward than the right has moved rightward. Today’s contentious political environment coincides with this trend.

An analysis from Pew Research Center found that by 2017, the average Democrat’s views were much further from the center than the average Republican’s. Divisions that spiked to record highs under Obama grew worse under Trump, even as Republicans moved leftward on gay marriage and immigration, according to the data.

The more the left moved the needle, bringing once-fringe concepts to the mainstream, the more issues Americans are forced to debate and disagree on. The idea that the US border should not be secured through forceful policies or that gender is based on feelings did not emerge as major issues until several years ago — because the left continued to push existing boundaries.

Divisive behavior is not all that’s causing America’s decline in civility. In part, this fracturing is an inevitable result of more people holding radically different views from one another.

Americans’ competing ideological visions produce more issues that center around philosophical beliefs, which are the hardest to resolve or compromise on. Abortion, transgenderism, affirmative action, and other topics are not about practical policy disagreements; they come down to differing views of morality, fairness, and truth.

Why it matters

Trump’s often provocative rhetoric is just one factor driving national tension. The mainstream media continue to scapegoat him, even suggesting it is Trump’s fault that two people have tried to kill him this year. Politicians, meanwhile, show no signs of toning down their rhetoric.

The past two presidential elections were already explosive — one side rioted at Trump’s inauguration, and the other at the Capitol in 2021. Incivility threatens to become a new normal, raising the stakes for America to overcome whatever challenges Tuesday’s election may present.