Can America’s divisions be overcome?

Oct 3

Critical Analysis

Find answers to the following questions using the visual above, your big brain, the information provided and any links below:

Even in 2020 in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, when the country was fighting over mask mandates and forced to reckon with questions about racial inequality, a majority of voters still agreed that the country was capable of solving its political problems. According to the visual above, as of September 2025, what percent of Americans believed America was too politically divided to address the nation’s problems.
Based on the visual above, from The New York Times and Siena University poll describe the change over the past five years in Americans’ feelings about the ability of our political system to solve our problems.
Why do you think that change has happened?
If things continue on that trajectory, predict what percent of Americans will have given up on our political system in 5 more years?
Explain whether America is too politically divided to address the nation’s problems.
Before the 2024 election, polls showed that people were more likely to identify issues such as inflation, abortion and immigration as most important to their vote. According to the visual below* what is the biggest problem facing the country today?
According to one polling respondent, Amber Yang, 37, of Boston, “It is impossible now to have a policy discussion,” She said the polarization has seeped into most aspects of life, complicating running a business and even raising a family. “There’s no consensus on the facts,” she added. “And when you can’t have a conversation, how do you even move forward?” Do you agree with Amber or should she shut up and go back to the rock she crawled out from under?
Political polarization is the divergence of political attitudes away from the center, towards ideological extremes. Explain which of the following you believe is most responsible for our growing polarization: demographic changes such as immigration, technological changes such as the proliferation of smart phones, individual politicians such as Donald Trump or Zohran Mamdani.
According to The New York Times and Siena University poll shown above, most Americans don’t want to think of members of the other political party as their enemy. According to the polling data When Democrats were asked whether they think of Republicans as “the enemy” or as “fellow Americans” whom they disagree with politically, only 10 percent chose the harsher description, a modest decline from last year. And 14 percent of Republicans said they think of Democrats as “the enemy,” a slight increase. But recently President Trump spoke to an audience of the highest ranking officers in the U.S Military. President Donald Trump on Tuesday signaled that he would make greater use of the U.S. military to quell disturbances in Democratic-run cities across the United States, warning of a “war from within” and comparing domestic threats to foreign enemies. “The ones that are run by the radical left Democrats... what they've done to San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, they're very unsafe places. And we're going to straighten them out one by one. This is going to be a major part for some of the people in this room,” he said in a speech to military leaders. “That's a war too. It's a war from within.” In a deeply political address, the president criticized his predecessor, Joe Biden, railed against “radical left lunatics,” and announced he would make use of the military more frequently for domestic purposes. “We should use some of the dangerous cities and training grounds” for the military, Trump said. He added that he’s given an order to create military “quick reaction forces” to “help quell civil disturbances.” Deploying the military for civilian law enforcement would violate the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878. “We are under invasion from within,” he said, “no different than a foreign enemy, but more difficult in many ways, because they don't wear uniforms.” President Trump’s political rhetoric is very different from his followers, why do you think President Trump refers to his political opponents as enemies?
Read the following information about the methodology of the poll: The survey was conducted among 1,313 registered voters nationwide from Sept. 22 to 27, 2025. This poll was conducted in English and Spanish, by telephone using live interviewers and by text message. Voters are selected for the survey from a list of registered voters. The list contains information on the demographic characteristics of every registered voter, allowing us to make sure we reach the right number of voters of each party, race and region. For this poll, interviewers placed more than 152,000 calls or texts to more than 56,000 voters. To further ensure that the results reflect the entire voting population, not just those willing to take a poll, we give more weight to respondents from demographic groups that are underrepresented among survey respondents, like people without a college degree. You can see more information about the characteristics of respondents and the weighted sample at the bottom of the results and methodology page, under “Composition of the Sample.” The margin of sampling error among the electorate that is likely to vote in November is about plus or minus 3.2 percentage points. In theory, this means that the results should reflect the views of the overall population most of the time, though many other challenges create additional sources of error. What does that information tell you about the validity of the poll?

Write and Discuss

Take ten minutes to write about the question at the top of the page and then discuss with your classmates.

Act on your Learning

We are now in the first week of the government shutdown. Think about how the government shutdown is impacting you our nation and contact your two U.S. Senators and let them know what you think they should do about the shutdown.

Get Creative

Describe your own reaction to the question from the visual above.

Learning Extension*

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