Biden’s Identity Politics and the Media Have Divided a Nation

President Joe Biden campaigned on a promise to unite the country, but three years later, the clear majority of Americans believe he and his administration are doing more to divide the country through identity politics.

A whopping 92% of Republicans polled claimed Biden was separating the country, while 84% of Democrats felt he was doing more to bring the country together. Half of independents, a major voting demographic that has been critical of Biden, said he was dividing the country.

On the campaign trail, in his victory speech, and in his inaugural address, Biden emphasised the importance of togetherness. Just last week, the president issued another call for peace when speaking on the one-year anniversary of the tragic U.S. Capitol riot.

“I believe the power and purpose of the presidency is to unite this nation, not divide it; to lift us up, not tear us apart; to be about us—about us, not’me,'” he stated. “Deep in the heart of America burns a flame lit nearly 250 years ago—of liberty, freedom, and equality.” This is not a land of monarchs, tyrants, or autocrats. We are a law-abiding people who value order over turmoil and peace over violence.”

Following the second anniversary of the January 6 riot, 53 percent of Americans believe a similar incident is either extremely likely or somewhat likely in the future.

Biden’s approval rating

Moreover, despite Biden’s appeals, more than half of Americans believe political polarisation would intensify throughout their lifetime. Furthermore, more than three-quarters of Americans believe that domestic political instability poses a greater threat than foreign foes.

The negative mindset of Americans extends beyond politics. Views of the economy remain overwhelmingly unfavourable, with nearly half of Americans (46%) expecting economic circumstances to worsen over the next year.

Furthermore, there has been a significant increase in the number of Americans who believe the country cannot fix many of its major problems, from 41% last year to 56% now.

Americans have become much more sceptical of the general public’s political knowledge. Approximately three-quarters of the population (76%) have little or no faith in the intelligence of the American people in making political decisions, up from 62% in 2021.

A recent Pew Research Centre survey of 5,079 members of the Center’s nationally representative American Trends Panel, conducted March 27-April 2, 2023, indicates that Biden’s job rating remains below 40%. Only 37% of those polled approve of his job performance, while 60% disapprove.

Americans fault news media for dividing nation

Meanwhile, when it comes to the liberal news media’s impact on democracy and political polarisation in the United States, Americans are more likely to believe it is causing more harm than good.

According to a new Associated Press poll, nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults believe the news media is growing political polarisation in the country, and just under half have little to no trust in the media’s ability to present the news fairly and honestly.

The poll found that while Americans are concerned about disinformation — and the role that the media, politicians, and social media corporations play in spreading it — many are also concerned about mounting risks to journalists’ safety.

This collapse in confidence may drive many Americans to abandon mainstream news sources in favour of social media and untrustworthy websites that distribute false information and can become partisan echo chambers, leading to increased polarisation.

While a narrow majority of Americans have some confidence in the liberal news media’s ability to convey the news fully and fairly, only 16% are very confident. 45 percent say they have little to no confidence in the future.

The survey reveals many Americans’ complicated relationship with the media: while the majority rate in-depth and investigative reporting as very helpful or extremely helpful for understanding the issues they care about, they are more likely to say they regularly scan the headlines rather than read an in-depth investigative article. While overall trust in the media is low, a majority of respondents believe the media does at least somewhat well in covering issues that are important to them.

American’s very divided

Four out of ten people believe the press is doing more to harm American democracy, while only around two out of ten believe the press is doing more to safeguard it. Another four in ten say neither applies.

According to Joe Salegna, a Republican from Long Island, New York, partisan news outlets and social media platforms have exacerbated the situation by teaching many Americans to view one another as enemies.

“I think it’s tearing this country apart,” Salegna, 50, said to the Associated Press. “I think it’s gotten a lot worse since the 2016 election.”

Republicans hold the news media in lower regard than Democrats, with 61% believing it harms democracy, compared to 23% of Democrats and 36% of independents who do not support either party. Majorities across party lines believe the news media causes political divisiveness, but Republicans are far more likely than Democrats to believe this occurs frequently.

More Republicans believe the news is heavily affected by the US government and journalists’ political opinions.

Coverage of recent presidential elections, the coronavirus pandemic, rallies against police deaths of Black Americans, and other incidents convinced Janis Fort that the media is untrustworthy. She claims that one network will cover a story that others will neglect, leaving viewers unsure who to believe.

“Everyone has a different story to share. “The media does nothing but instill fear,” said Fort, a 71-year-old retired Republican from Navarre, Florida. “Most of the people I know, including myself, feel completely in the dark.”

Media fragmentation

According to research, the fragmentation of the media ecosystem, mostly driven by the internet, has contributed to polarisation. Experts attribute America’s heightened political divisions to a variety of factors, including gerrymandering, which decreases political competition, and politicians who instill fear and distrust, but media fragmentation and misinformation are also playing a role.

“We should be concerned about the health of democracy,” said Joshua Tucker, a New York University political scientist who studies partisanship and co-directs NYU’s Centre for Social Media.

Concern about the threat posed by disinformation unifies Americans of both parties, with nearly nine out of ten U.S. adults stating that misinformation is a concern. Every day, one-third of American people say they encounter news with inaccurate claims made by politicians or misleading headlines.

“There is still good journalism, it’s just that the internet has made it so that anybody can be a quote-unquote journalist,” said Chris Nettell, a Democrat from Hickory Creek, Texas. “We have some news media that only targets a certain segment of society, and those people believe that because that’s all they read, everyone else believes it as well.”

Social media plays a significant role, with nearly two-thirds of respondents expecting an erroneous news report when they encounter it on social media. Those who claimed they get their news from social media on a regular basis were slightly more likely to believe it than others.

Spread of misinformation

Overall, around 6 in 10 believe the news media is to responsible for the spread of misinformation, and a comparable percentage believe it carries a significant degree of responsibility for resolving it. Majorities also believe that others, such as social media corporations and politicians, bear responsibility for both the propagation of disinformation and its prevention.

“So many people get their information from social media, and people believe whatever they want to believe,” said Araceli Cervantes, 39, a Republican mother of four from Chicago.

When it comes to defending press freedom in the United States, 44% of respondents feel the government is doing a good job, while 24% say it is doing a bad one. Most Americans are concerned about the safety of journalists, with nearly one-third stating they are very concerned or extremely concerned about attacks on the press.

The survey of 1,002 individuals was performed from March 30 to April 3 using a sample taken from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is intended to be representative of the U.S. population.

For all respondents, the margin of sampling error is 4.4 percentage points.