Fewer Americans say reducing toxic polarization is very important
A dwindling share of Americans think it’s “very important” to bridge divisions or find better ways to understand people whose political affiliations are different from their own, according to a new Public Agenda/USA TODAY poll. This is a stark departure from previous research and a nod to the politically polarized country that America has become.
A similar poll from Hidden Common Ground in 2019 found that 65% of Americans said reducing divisions is very important. Today, less than half (48%) hold this view.
The survey, conducted among 2,219 Americans in August, focused on the role that spirituality and religion play in people’s lives and in their decision-making in the voting booth. Americans who identify as both spiritual and religious — the poll did not define spirituality for participants — are more likely to have their beliefs reflected in their political views and voting decisions, especially Republicans.
Among the main results of the survey:
►75% of Republicans who are both religious and spiritual say their religion influences their political views. This is the case for 61% of Democrats and 51% of independents.
►About 40% of all Americans, including about 60% of Republicans, say a politician’s religious beliefs or spiritual values are important in deciding who to vote for.
►About two-thirds of Americans, including about half of Republicans, think it’s a problem if politicians make decisions based on their religious beliefs or spiritual values.
Additionally, people who are both religious and spiritual are more willing to attempt to build bridges with those who hold different political beliefs, are more likely to say they have done so before, and are committed to trying to understand the beliefs of others.
“People who are both religious and spiritual are really ready for this stuff,” said David Schleifer, vice president and director of research at Public Agenda.
Religious and spiritual opinions influence the vote
Schleifer said the survey results told him that “people who are religious and spiritual are different. I’ve done a lot of research on different political issues and divisiveness and never really thought about religion or paid attention to it – but I think it’s something we’ve overlooked.
That’s especially true when looking at how many people — Democrats, Republicans and independents — say their religious or spiritual views influence their voting decisions.
“It’s very easy to dismiss this or assume it’s just a Republican thing, and it’s not,” Schleifer said. “This is also true for most Democrats who are both religious and spiritual and about half of independents who are religious and spiritual.”
Opinion:‘Not left or right, but deep’: How believers can help heal America’s divisions
Another discovery that jumped out at Schleifer: most people think America’s degree of division has been exaggerated by the media and politicians.
Charles Campbell, a landscaper who lives in a suburb of New Orleans and took part in the poll, said he doesn’t necessarily think America is more divided today than it was 10 or 20 years ago – Americans are simply more aware of divisions and differing opinions and beliefs because of social media.
“We’re more connected now when it comes to communication, but we’re divided because we see more (of what people think),” Campbell, 42, said.
Another poll participant, Lynne Richardson of Oakland, New Jersey, agreed that the media has helped to deepen the country’s growing divisions.
“A lot of these cable stations are for the division,” said Richardson, 56, who works part-time in a college registrar’s office. She said many news outlets “continue to nurture” why Americans are also divisive, often focusing on the extremes on both sides of an issue.
The political climate in the United States reminds Richardson of the deep divisions in Ireland during the Troubles, the political conflicts in Northern Ireland from around 1968 to 1998. As Richardson recalls, many people “didn’t listen to each other just not – they just kept shouting the same things at each other.
“It doesn’t have to be that way,” said Richardson, who spent time in Ireland while at university, refusing to listen to the other side.
Richardson, who does not identify as religious or spiritual, sees benefit in trying to understand Americans who hold beliefs and opinions different from his own.
“I’m not going to give up a friendship with someone who is generous and kind and loyal just because they have different political beliefs,” she said. “It’s really cutting off your nose to upset your face.”
Count on the younger generations to stick together
Campbell said he was counting on people younger than him, including his 22-year-old daughter, to fill the gap.
“I think (the division) is going to change and improve because the younger generation, they connect, they understand better what each other is going through, they listen to each other,” Campbell said.
Campbell – a Baptist who has said it’s important to him to vote for politicians who also identify as spiritual and “believe in a higher power” – credits his religion for his willingness to listen to people he might be with. to disagree.
“I have no problem having conversations with those kinds of people,” he said. He added that when he sees someone on Facebook posting a comment he disagrees with, he doesn’t just delete that friend or ignore the comment. “I would comment and strike up a conversation and try to figure out why they said…communication is how we learn from each other.”
In Burlington, North Carolina, Bobby Clark, another survey participant, is also open to having conversations with people who have a different point of view – but he doesn’t listen because he’s not necessarily open to change of opinion or beliefs.
“I try to understand other people’s side unless it’s too far-fetched,” Clark, 62, said. “I’m like this: ‘I have what I believe in and I stick to it. You can tell me what you believe in, but you probably can’t persuade me to follow your path.
Clark, who attends a nondenominational church, said Americans in general have a lot more in common than not. But he pushed back against the idea that the division has been exaggerated by the media and politicians.
“For me, as a black man in this world, I think we are strongly divided – and (this division) is even worse than it was in the 1960s” during the segregation and the rights movement civics, he said.
Clark said the divisions in the United States are tied to the same cause: white supremacy. And he doesn’t have faith that much will change in his life.
But like Campbell in New Orleans, Clark has hope for the future, even if he doesn’t think he’ll live to see it.
“These new generations of black kids, they don’t put up with things like we did,” Clark said. “They are strong, independent-minded and yes, they are more accepting (than the older generations).”
Is it a trend?
Yet members of older generations are also trying to fill in the gaps.
Lynaire Clipper, a retired dental assistant near Ann Arbor, Michigan, said her faith taught her not only to accept the beliefs of others, but also to welcome discussion and debate. And although the 62-year-old Protestant said her beliefs were top of mind when she entered the voting booth, she doesn’t think she should “affirm” those values to anyone else.
She used abortion as an example: While Clipper said she was “pro-life,” she voted for the amendment that enshrined abortion rights in Michigan’s state constitution during November elections.
Public Agenda’s Schleifer isn’t sure the survey results signal a trend in how people who identify as religious and spiritual factor into their beliefs when they vote. He also doesn’t know if their desire to find unity is something that will last.
He noted that the results of this poll point to certainty. “We need more research,” Schleifer said with a laugh.
USA Today
