Claude Sonnet 5Sep 1217 citations
Is political polarization worse than it's been in the past?
Short answer: It depends on which type of polarization you mean — and by some measures, yes, it's near historic highs; by others, no, the U.S. has seen worse.
Scholars distinguish between two things that often get conflated:
1. Affective polarization (how much people dislike the other side) — this does appear to be at or near record levels
Americans increasingly see the country as more divide