Words & Phrases We Can Do Without

“Polarization” is not our problem

Pundits and politicians say it incessantly: Our political system is broken because we are so “polarized.” They tell us that “polarization” prevents us from passing legislation or reaching a compromise or getting along.

This is bunk, not to mention a dangerous false equivalence, which minimizes the threat of authoritarianism.

If you didn’t know better you would think “polarization” descended from on high, a plague for which no one party is responsible. This deliberate obfuscation of our political situation suits the corporate media’s obsession with moral equivalence and contrived balance.

History provides clarity. We would not have said the Confederacy was “polarized.” The Confederacy, as professor Stephanie McCurry wrote in 2020, was a “big, centralized state, devoted to securing a society in which enslavement to white people was the permanent and inherited condition of all people of African descent.” Tyranny results not from polarization but from oppression.

Other countries’ experiences help distinguish polarization from authoritarianism. Hungary’s problem is not polarization; it’s the authoritarian rule of Viktor Orban who suppresses dissent, silences the media, and strips the judiciary of independence. Many Hungarians want the return of the rule of law, free speech, and robust civil society while Orban does not. But who would call that a “polarization” problem? It’s a dictator problem.

Whether it is Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s police state in Turkey or neo-fascist parties in Europe or MAGA’s takeover of the Republican Party, the defining feature that should concern us is not mutual intransigence or a widening ideological gap. Rather, in the United States and around the globe we see ordinary democratic parties (warts and all) up against authoritarian movements (some successful, others not) that reject democracy, truth, decency, pluralism, and the rule of law.

The central feature in the U.S.—a cult of personality in which the erratic, chaotic, and unhinged leader runs roughshod over its people—has nothing to do with Democrats. We cannot blame the small “d” democrats (or the large “D” ones either) for extremism or intransigence simply for insisting their fellow countrymen recognize objective reality and respect democratic norms.

When we look at individual issues, the rampant, inappropriate use of “polarization” stands out. It would, for example, be absurd to say we are “polarized” on the issue of immunization. Gosh, if only each side were not so stuck in its position. Those Democrats are so fixated on medicine and science. One side has, frankly, lost its mind on the subject; the other has not. Extreme authoritarians have overtaken one political party, putting at risk functional government and democracy itself, while another party remains a traditional center-left party.

Besides concealing the menace of authoritarianism, the indiscriminate use of the word “polarization” blurs the distinction between political elites and ordinary people. TIME magazine reported in 2024:

Ordinary folks think Americans are much more partisan than they are. In the same study, people grossly overestimated (by 78%) the size of the most polarized group within each party—that is, Democrats who call themselves liberal and Republicans who call themselves conservative. At the same time, ordinary Americans grossly underestimated (by 77%) the share of the other party who are moderate. That share is, in fact, at least half of either party. “People probably are exactly right about how polarized their leaders are,” says Robb Willer, a sociologist at Stanford. “They get it very wrong for the general public.”

Other data suggest that right-wing extremism (the real source of anti-democratic fervor) has not overtaken the entire populace. A 2022 More in Common survey on the so-called history wars (what should we teach about America), for example, showed that “for the vast majority of Americans, the differences in how we perceive and want our national story taught are far narrower than a few high-profile polemics might suggest.”

MAGA officeholders and media figures inveigh against nebulous CRT or DEI, but in practice, normal people do not follow the loudest voices enunciating the most extreme views (positions held by less than 15 percent of adults). In the real world, Americans overwhelmingly think, for example, that we should teach about the good and bad parts of American history and the legacy of slavery. Just as MAGA cranks exaggerate the extent of trans women’s participation in sports, they would also have us believe that “liberals” don’t want to teach anything positive about America. And since MAGA extremists want to rewrite history, the rest of us get the impression all Republicans do.

Academic studies have confirmed that “people often exaggerate political differences and negative feelings of those on the opposite side of the political divide, and this misperception can be reduced by informing them of the other side’s true feelings.” And, as I have written, overwhelming majorities of Americans agree on everything from background checks for guns to supporting NATO to green energy subsidies to term limits for Supreme Court justices. Likewise, large majorities of Americans oppose Trump’s on-again-off-again-10% tariffs.

Since “polarization” has lost its meaning and is now being used to conceal responsibility for the assault on democracy, and leading us to believe ordinary Americans are as deranged as the loudest cranks, let’s dispense with it. We must keep our eye on the ball: namely, an extreme, well-organized reactionary machine insulated from accountability by right-wing media, political cowardice, and government intimidation.

Going forward, the task is to welcome back those who can still be persuaded to return to the reality-based, pro-democracy silent majority. Fortunately, Trump’s grotesque incompetence, dizzying reversals, and overreach is making that task easier.