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

[1][2][3][4]Yes, by multiple standard measures, political polarization in the United States is worse than it has been for decades (roughly since the mid-to-late 20th century) and reaches levels comparable to some historical highs outside of the Civil War era, though the nature of the divisions differs and it is not equivalent to periods of actual civil conflict or mass violence.[1]

Polarization is multidimensional: ideological/issue-based (differences in policy views), affective (emotional dislike or animosity toward the other side), elite/congressional (voting and behavior of politicians), and related factors like geographic/social sorting. Trends are clearest and best-documented for the US; data elsewhere is more mixed, with the US often standing out among wealthy democracies.[5]

Recent Trends (Last 40–50 Years)

Pew Research and others consistently document growing partisan gaps on issues like climate, guns, abortion, race, and immigration, with fewer Americans holding mixed liberal-conservative views.[7]

Longer Historical Context

The US has experienced intense polarization before:

Current levels rival intense past periods in elite voting cohesion and public animosity metrics for a stable democracy, and the US is an outlier among wealthy Western democracies for “pernicious” polarization that has persisted and risen (V-Dem and related data). However, it lacks the scale of organized violence, paramilitary activity, or institutional breakdown of the Civil War or even parts of the 1960s–70s. Divisions today are more nationalized, identity/culture-war oriented, and amplified by media/algorithms rather than purely sectional (North-South). Some historians argue substantive divides are not as deep as in the Adams/Jefferson years or late 1960s, while others see today’s as uniquely corrosive due to mutual perceptions of existential threat and declining shared facts/institutions.[8]

Caveats and Broader Picture

In short, for the modern post-WWII US (and especially vs. the relatively less polarized mid-20th century or even the 1980s–2000s), yes—it is worse across key metrics of division, animosity, and elite behavior. It feels intense because the two sides are roughly equal in size, media ecosystems are siloed, and politics has become more central to identity. Historical parallels exist but are imperfect; the current era is a high point for peacetime democratic polarization in several quantitative senses.