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The US political climate as of late 2026 (amid Trump’s second term and approaching midterms) is marked by extreme polarization, eroded trust in institutions, rising political violence/threats, contested election administration, and competing narratives of democratic threat. These dynamics create risks to social cohesion, effective governance, the rule of law, and democratic norms. Perceptions of t

Whether political polarization is "worse" today than in the past depends entirely on which era you compare it to and how you measure it. Political scientists generally divide polarization into two types: ideological polarization (differences in policy positions) and affective polarization (feelings of dislike, distrust, and hostility toward the opposing party). By both metrics, political polari

[[1]](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/03/10/the-polarization-in-todays-congress-has-roots-that-go-back-decades/)[[2]](https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/political-division-united-states)[[3]](https://osf.io/download/rvtsfv1/?source=preprint&tz=America%2FNewYork)[[4]](https://carnegieendowment.org/files/McCoyetal-Polarizationfinal3.pdf)Yes, in key measurable ways—especially elite/party pola

Yes, by multiple key metrics, political polarization in the United States is higher now than it has been for much of the past several decades (especially since the mid-20th century bipartisan era), and in some elite-level measures it exceeds most of the post-Reconstruction period—though it is not unprecedented in American history and falls short of the existential divisions of the Civil War era.