Americans Are Actually More United Than You Might Think

Opinion|Here’s Something We Agree On in America

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?

Since the early 1990s, majorities of Americans have said that our nation is “greatly divided when it comes to our most important values,” except for the year after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. 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, as 89 percent of counties in America shifted rightward. The gap between how men and women voted shrank by three percentage points, a notable result in a campaign where some political experts expected a historic gender gap. Voters under 30 and voters over age 65 — two groups that were worlds apart in the 2020 presidential election, voting nearly 30 points in opposite directions — came closer together in 2024 and around a dozen points apart in their preference for president. Of particular note was the lessening of racial polarization; while white voters remained about as supportive of Donald Trump this time around, nonwhite voters shifted over a dozen points in Mr. Trump’s direction.

What we are experiencing in our society now is a reorientation of many of our existing political divides. Organizations, professions and institutions that were recently trusted by at least one side of the political aisle have come in for greater scrutiny, with new bipartisan alignment on skepticism.

Take business. Not long ago many Republican Party leaders and plenty of G.O.P. voters believed in the value of business, the need to protect business from government interference and the virtues of “job creators.” In 2012, for instance, only 23 percent of Republicans said they had “very little” or no trust in “big business,” while 38 percent had “quite a lot” or “a great deal” of trust. By 2023, those numbers had flipped, with high trust in big business falling by 20 points. The partisan gap on this, at times quite large, has closed entirely by Republicans almost catching up to Democrats in their disdain for large corporations. And in November’s election, Mr. Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, ran on a populist message that included skepticism of big business and the financial and hiring practices of many companies, including their use of immigrants in the labor force.

Another major institution that was more trusted in the 2000s and 2010s is the military. Post-9/11, Republicans reported sky-high confidence in the military, even as Democratic confidence hovered 20 to 30 points lower. But in a very short period, starting in 2020, Republican confidence in the military dropped a whopping 23 points. Today, Republicans and Democrats have nearly the same level of trust in the armed forces. While it rates higher than most institutions, the closing of the gap between right and left in views of the military has not bolstered its ratings. Although it is harder to imagine Republicans of decades gone by publicly criticizing top brass or holding up promotions, today the Pentagon is not exempt from the ire of conservatives.