Just a few metres from the Washington Monument and near a view of the White House, tourists from across the United States gathered in D.C. ahead of the July Fourth holiday.
The U.S. turns 249 years old on Friday. But the feeling that the country is deeply fractured — both on political issues and on the nation’s defining values — was pervasive among those visiting its capital city.
“This country is definitely built on division, with having two separate parties,” said Andrea Bautista, from Grand Rapids, Mich. “It’s kind of hard because you can’t really be in the middle. You kind of have to choose a side.”
Bautista, who was in the capital to celebrate the national holiday and her recent birthday, said she feels like there’s little room for nuance in public discourse about U.S. politics — nor does she think Americans share a cohesive national identity.
“I can have very conservative ideas, but I also have very leftist ideas as well,” she said. “But the problem is that people don’t see it that way. And people just like to assume that you’re on one side.”
Poll after poll has shown where Americans are apart: on Trump’s presidency, on his administration’s immigration crackdown, on U.S. support for Ukraine, and on the minutiae of the massive spending bill just passed by Congress, among other issues.
A polarized nation
Emily West, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Pittsburgh, said in an interview that she believes there is some common ground.
However, “I think that the way that our society has fractured over time along these political schisms makes it harder and harder to be able to find that common ground,” she added.
Relative to Trump’s first term, “I’d say we probably are a bit more fractured,” said West, who researches how U.S. political identity impacts democracy and polarization.
What’s unclear is “the extent to which that’s because of Trump or the extent to which that’s because we were already on this trend for the last 20 years,” she said. “It’s likely some confluence of many factors, including both of those.”
Some Americans visiting D.C. who spoke with CBC News said there was little consensus to be found across political lines.
For Sean Edwards, a resident of St. Louis unhappy with the current White House, the best he could do was “agree to disagree.”
“It’s just the way the country’s being run right now — there’s a divide,” said Edwards.
What brings Americans together?
So what — if anything — still brings Americans together? Many are still concerned about the economy, according to Gallup’s economic confidence index. And roughly three-quarters agree that fresh faces are desperately needed in Washington, per an NBC poll conducted in April that surveyed 19,682 adults nationally. The margin of error was +/- 2.2 percentage points.
For Luka Netzel, a recent graduate from Kansas City, Mo., whose work takes him across the country, affordability is a major concern that seems to transcend political division.
“I think a lot of people right now are nervous about: ‘What does the future look like? What do the next five years look like if I can’t even think about affording a house or an apartment? What is it gonna look like with the climate continuing to change?’
“I think there’s a lot of unease, and that’s something that a lot of bad actors want to capitalize on and use for their own advantage,” said Netzel.
Houston resident Shawn Broadhead, who was bicycling along the National Mall, agreed about the polarized political climate — pointing to the intense debates that were underway at the Capitol building this week as lawmakers wrestled over Trump’s controversial spending bill.
“I feel there’s a lot of division, and not enough open-mindedness to where our country’s headed right now,” explained Broadhead.
What can Americans still agree on? The economy, Christmas, and the Fourth of July, he said. Then adding: “I try not to bring up politics or religion.”
Community, opportunity, equality
Setu Shah, a Seattle resident who immigrated to the U.S. from India to work in the tech industry, said she couldn’t speak to the country’s political divisions. But she said the country is rightly called the land of opportunity.
“It’s a country going in the correct direction, in terms of taking steps [to make] it better and better for the American people, and I think that should count for something,” she said.
Some gathered near the country’s most famous landmarks were hoping that the Fourth of July would bring out a sense of national pride. Jim Dupree, a member of the American Legion, took in a view of the White House and its South Lawn from the public park on its border. He was there to see the new U.S. flagpole that Trump had installed last month.
“I’m hoping to see a lot more patriotism about the country,” said Dupree, who described himself as a Trump supporter.
“I’m hoping [that] American patriotism can be reignited because the country lasting now, for [almost] 250 years, holding onto their same constitution without significant changes — it’s pretty remarkable,” he said.
Vincent Langan, a New Jersey resident who was visiting Washington while on a road trip to see friends, said the U.S. political climate breeds “really powerful hatred that enters a lot of different arenas of public and private life that makes things very difficult here.”
But Langan adds that he still believes in America’s “unique model of democracy,” and that the country still has shared values across partisan lines.
“I think community — wanting to be in community with each other, hard work, the pursuit of happiness [are] an important part [of life] here,” he said. “And also the ability to speak your mind and to be free about who you are and what you wanna do and what you believe in.”
