Is political polarization worse than it's been in the past?

Short answer: It's complicated — worse than recent decades, but not unprecedented historically

The nuanced picture:

1. By some measures, yes — polarization is at modern highs

Congressional voting patterns show a clear trend. On average, Democrats and Republicans are farther apart ideologically today than at any time in the past 50 years. This has been building for a while: both parties have grown more ideologically cohesive, with only about two dozen moderate Democrats and Republicans left on Capitol Hill, versus more than 160 in 1971-72.

"Affective polarization" — how much people dislike the other side, not just disagree on policy — has grown especially sharply. Pew data shows in 2022, 72% of Republicans and 63% of Democrats viewed the opposing party as more immoral than other Americans—up dramatically from 47% and 35% in 2016. Researchers note this shift: evidence from the U.S. that animosity between political opponents has grown disproportionately relative to policy differences has led researchers to shift focus away from ideological polarization and towards affective polarization.

Recent survey data (late 2025) reinforces that perception of division is rising: a new survey finds that 89 percent of local officials say polarization is negatively affecting the United States, the highest figure since data collection began in August 2024. Interestingly, though, 30 percent of the same officials say polarization is hurting their local community, a figure unchanged during the past year, suggesting that community life remains resilient despite national strife.

2. But historically, it's been much worse

Political scientists are quick to caution against "worst ever" claims. As one Columbia Political Review piece notes, the United States has had multiple periods of division before—in some cases, significantly worse than what we have right now.

Congressional polarization researchers using NOMINATE scores (which track voting patterns since the 1870s) have found that ideological distance between the parties began to grow during the 1970s to the extent that Congress is now more polarized than at any time since the late 1870s Reconstruction Era. That's a notable exception — the Reconstruction era, when the parties were divided over the aftermath of the Civil War and Southern Senator Preston Brooks nearly beat abolitionist Charles Sumner to death on the Senate floor — was almost certainly worse.

Some researchers even argue today's polarization isn't that unusual in the very long run: viewed within the context of data from the last two centuries, today's levels of polarization are not such an alarming anomaly compared to those occurring during the time of slavery and similar points along the historical continuum.

3. A key methodological caveat

Political scientist Frances Lee argues that comparing eras is inherently tricky, because while some measurements suggest more division, what they actually show is simply that the voting behavior of politicians has become more predictable — not necessarily that policy gaps are wider. She points out that changes in the scope of policy issues over time matter — even though measurements show increasing party division over civil rights issues, many of today's votes are narrower in effect than 1960s civil rights legislation.

Bottom line

So "worse than ever" is an overstatement, but "worse than in living memory for most Americans" is well-supported by the data.