2016–today (roots from the 1990s)

A divided country: red and blue America

Partisan identity hardens into something like tribal belonging, as Americans sort into "red" and "blue" worlds that disagree not just on policy but on facts and on the meaning of the nation.

As Partisan Hostility Grows, Signs of Frustration With the Two-Party System — Pew Research Center (2022)
American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America — Colin Woodard, Viking (2011)
United States — Encyclopaedia Britannica

Debated by historians politicspolarisationidentitydemocracy

American politics has always been rough, but since the 1990s the two parties have sorted along lines of geography, religion, education and race. Democrats now dominate big cities and the coasts and win most voters with university degrees and most Black, Hispanic and Asian voters; Republicans dominate rural areas and small towns and win most white evangelical Christians and white voters without degrees. Cable news, talk radio and social media let each side live in its own information world.

As Partisan Hostility Grows, Signs of Frustration With the Two-Party System — Pew Research Center (2022)
American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America — Colin Woodard, Viking (2011)

The 2016 election of Donald Trump, a television businessman promising to “Make America Great Again”, turned these divides into open warfare. Pew Research Center found that in 2022, 62% of Republicans and 54% of Democrats held a very unfavourable view of the other party, up from 43% and 46% a decade earlier.

As Partisan Hostility Grows, Signs of Frustration With the Two-Party System — Pew Research Center (2022)

The Covid-19 pandemic, the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020 and the protests that followed, the storming of the Capitol by Trump supporters on 6 January 2021, and the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning the constitutional right to abortion all became partisan flashpoints. Trump returned to the White House in January 2025.

United States — Encyclopaedia Britannica
As Partisan Hostility Grows, Signs of Frustration With the Two-Party System — Pew Research Center (2022)

Even words are contested: one side’s “election integrity” is the other’s “voter suppression”; “woke” is a compliment to some and an insult to others. Yet surveys also show a large, tired middle that is frustrated with both parties: about a quarter of Americans in 2022 viewed both parties unfavourably.

As Partisan Hostility Grows, Signs of Frustration With the Two-Party System — Pew Research Center (2022)

How it's seen

Many conservatives (red America)

Elites in cities, universities, media and government look down on ordinary people, faith and patriotism; immigration has been out of control; and the country's founding is being taught as something shameful. Many see Donald Trump as a fighter for people the system forgot.

As Partisan Hostility Grows, Signs of Frustration With the Two-Party System — Pew Research Center (2022)
American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America — Colin Woodard, Viking (2011)

Many liberals (blue America)

The country must face its history of racism and inequality; rights over abortion, voting and LGBTQ equality are under threat; and the refusal to accept the 2020 election result, culminating in the attack on the Capitol on 6 January 2021, endangered democracy itself.

As Partisan Hostility Grows, Signs of Frustration With the Two-Party System — Pew Research Center (2022)

Why it matters today

United States

Politics now shapes where many Americans live, what news they trust, and even whom they will date. Most do not hate their neighbours, but many fear what the other side would do with power. Knowing this is key to talking with Americans: ordinary topics can carry a political charge.