U.S. Isn’t as Polarized as You Think

This letter to the editor, by John Krizek, appeared in the Hudson Star Observer on July 23, 2026.

Americans agree more than our politics suggests — and the data proves it.

Voters for President Donald Trump and 2024 presidential candidate Kamala Harris split sharply on candidates and policy. But look past the labels and most are worried about the same things: prices, jobs and whether they can afford daily life. Both sides want a country that feels stable and fair. Both show strong support for protecting Social Security. And in one national survey, overwhelming majorities of both Trump and Harris voters agreed that Americans should put country over party.

Pew Research found that 93% of Trump supporters called the economy “very important” to their vote — but so did 68% of Harris supporters, who ranked it alongside health care and abortion. Both camps were anxious about prices, jobs and financial security.

That last finding matters most. It suggests the divide isn’t really about what we care about — it’s about which party we trust to fix it.

Underneath the specific policies, both groups expressed a similar longing: for leaders who “care about people like me” and won’t let powerful interests run roughshod over ordinary families — whether those interests are framed as “big corporations” or “Washington elites.”

This isn’t a hunch. Political scientists at Tufts University’s Cooperative Election Study — including Professor Brian Schaffner, who co-directs the project — have used data from tens of thousands of voters to show that shared concerns run deeper than partisan rhetoric implies. Inflation, uncertainty, fairness, competent government: these pressures don’t sort themselves neatly by party.

None of this means our disagreements aren’t real. Voters differ honestly on solutions and that’s worth debating. But we’d debate better if we started from what we share, not from the assumption that the other side is alien. Most Americans want the same basics: a decent life, a fair shot and leaders who put the country first.

If we want a government that works for us, we should start acting like we’re on the same side — because on the issues that matter most, we already are.