As we close out 2024, something important is unfolding in America that hasn't happened in many years: We're more united in our outlook about our country's institutions. There is rising and perhaps unexpected alignment between Americans of different walks of life, from left to right. Granted, this alignment may at first glance seem like a problem, for what unites us, increasingly, is what we distrust.
But consider this: We have thought of ourselves as so divided for so long, might there be some upside to starting the new year knowing we aren't quite as polarized as we thought and that people with whom we assumed we had nothing in common also believe our institutions must do better?
This year, in the weeks before the 2024 election, Americans reported a record high level of division. Fewer than one in five said we were mostly united and in agreement about our most important values, and that figure held true for Republicans, Democrats and independents alike.
But as a pollster, I was intrigued to see that the November election pumped the brakes a bit on our previously widening political divisions. We didn't move further apart; if anything, this was an election that produced a slight depolarization of our country along a number of fault lines.
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