No matter how divided we seem to be as a country, we're inclined to suffer from a case of recentcy bias (meaning whatever is going on right now is more significant than what's happened previously).
Given that we've fought a war against one another - it's safe to say we're nowhere near as divided as we've been previously. That being said, we are as divided as we've been in the polling age.
For the most part, we haven't been either/or types on policy. In other words, there's been room for pragmatism and difference of opinion without being completely divided on issues.
According to the Pew Research Center:
- Our values and views are 36 percent different based on political leanings
- (Meaning that) our collective values are shared only about 64 percent of the time
Compare that to 20 years ago when the divide was only 15 percent and we shared 85 percent of the same values.
Interestingly, the issue that's seen the largest increase in political agreement has been homosexuality's acceptance in society - including the evolution of marriage, rights and benefits.
The area of greatest divide over the past twenty years has been immigration. Twenty years ago, solid majorities of all political stripes were opposed to amnesty and believed in the need to enforce immigration policies and laws. Today, solid majorities of those who lean left are more likely to support "sanctuary status" than existing law enforcement.
While societies tend to go through a cyclical process of political views (hence why we typically have full term Presidents replaced with Presidents of an opposing party), however the growing divide on shared values has slowly and consistently only gone in one direction - and that's increasing division.
It's unclear if we're as divided as we're going to be or if the divides will only continue to grow.