The election of Donald Trump to a new term as president has underscored how politically divided Americans remain – possibly more than at any other time in the last 50 years, with a majority of both Republicans and Democrats viewing the opposing side as the biggest threat to democracy, various studies show. The polarization has undermined faith in traditional news media, in political conciliation and cooperation, and in the U.S. electoral system itself.
Archon Fung, the Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, spoke to this year’s Nieman Fellows and to Nieman Reports in October about the current state of America’s deep political divisions, shifts in our electorate and ways of mitigating polarization during an election year and beyond. Edited excerpts:
The election of Donald Trump to a new term as president has underscored how politically divided Americans remain – possibly more than at any other time in the last 50 years, with a majority of both Republicans and Democrats viewing the opposing side as the biggest threat to democracy, various studies show. The polarization has undermined faith in traditional news media, in political conciliation and cooperation, and in the U.S. electoral system itself. Archon Fung, the Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, spoke to this year’s Nieman Fellows and to Nieman Reports in October about the current state of America’s deep political divisions, shifts in our electorate and ways of mitigating polarization during an election year and beyond. Edited excerpts: Read More