Polarization feels worse than ever — I'll dig into long-term data to see how today compares to the past.
In short: Yes, compared to the last 50-100 years - No, compared to the deepest crises in American history.
Scholars distinguish two types:
•Ideological polarization (differences in policy positions) and affective polarization (dislike and distrust of political out-groups)
•Both are apparent in the United States, with the U.S. experiencing a greater surge than comparable democracies
Worse than recent past
By modern measurement, polarization is at a high point:
•As of 2025, polarization was higher than any point in current history, causing less collaboration and mutual understanding between Democrats and Republicans
•A Pew Research Center analysis from 2022 found Democrats and Republicans are farther apart ideologically today than at any time in the past 50 years
•From 1994 to 2014, the share of Americans who expressed either "consistently liberal" or "consistently conservative" opinions doubled from 10% to 21%. In 1994, the average Republican was more conservative than 70% of Democrats, compared to more conservative than 94% of Democrats in 2014
•Affective hostility has risen sharply. In 1994, only 21 percent of Republicans and 17 percent of Democrats held "very unfavorable" views of the other party. In 2022, that category rose to 62 percent for Republicans and 54 percent for Democrats. Other Pew tracking shows the figure rising from 20-26% in 2002 to 62% of Republicans and 54% of Democrats in 2022.
•In Congress, there were about two dozen moderate Democrats and Republicans in the 117th Congress (2021-2023). For comparison, there were more than 160 moderates five decades earlier during the 92nd Congress (1971-1972)
•In 2025 the percentage of Americans self-identifying as politically moderate reached a record low of 34%
•Polarization has increased since the 1970s, with rapid increases during the 2000s onwards
In comparative perspective:
•The U.S. has increased more dramatically since the late 1970s than in eight other countries examined — the U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Switzerland, Norway and Sweden
•According to long-term trends in nine OECD countries over four decades, the US exhibited the largest increase in affective polarization over this period
Some research suggests that affective polarization is growing more rapidly than ideological polarization and perhaps even driving it.
Not worse than the most divisive eras of U.S. history
Historians caution against "presentism":
•"The most divisive time in our history was in the years leading up to the Civil War," In the mid-19th Century, differences were so profound representatives carried weapons into Congress
•As a historian who has written and taught about the Civil War era, current divisions pale in comparison to those of the mid-19th century
•For all the hype about the ruptures and partisan rancor in contemporary American society, the strife pales in comparison with much of the nation's past. There have been long stretches of American history in which conflicts were far worse
Other highly polarized periods often cited:
•The Gilded Age of the late 19th century (c. 1870-1900) is considered to be one of the most politically polarized periods in American history, with open political violence and highly polarized political discourse
•The 1950s and 1960s were marked by high levels of political bipartisanship, the results of a post-World War II "consensus", so the current period is much more polarized than that relatively consensual era.
Why it feels worse now
Researchers point to distinctive features of current polarization:
•"Partisan polarization is worse today than it has been in 100 years," said Cornell Clayton, director of the Thomas S. Foley Institute
•Today, social, cultural and political alignments have collapsed into two comprehensive worldview clusters — a process of "belief consolidation" where previously cross-partisan alignments have sorted
•Other research suggests that Americans are less ideologically polarized than they think, and that there is significant ideological overlap, but they are very emotionally polarized — "they do not like members of the other party"