What’s Really Behind Our Divisive Views

America is a divided country. We all feel it now more than ever. Polarization, anger, and uncompromising positions seem more common.
We see this creeping into our local politics. We see it creeping into our social lives. Still, Americans have higher opinions of their communities across a broad range of topics than the federal government.
Pew Research recently studied how people compare their views of local versus national policy and actions covering several major areas of conflict. It offers its opinion on why this divide exists, but we will offer one that we believe comes much closer to the root cause.

Elections
When it comes to trust in our elections, Pew found that nearly 70% of those surveyed had a very favorable opinion of how local elections were conducted in 2024. However, just 43% thought the results of elections in other parts of the country could be trusted.
There has always been a gap between local trust in elections and our skepticism that other counties or states are as honest and accurate as we are.

Congress
Americans have always had a higher opinion of their local member of Congress than of the body as a whole.
“In a July 2023 survey, 56% of Americans said their local elected officials were doing a good job, and 41% said the same about their representative in Congress. But only 26% had a favorable view of Congress as a whole,” Pew reports.

Local and federal governments
We also think our local governments – our cities, school districts, and counties – are better run and more responsive to our needs. While over 60% of Americans feel positively about their local governments, only 22% say the same about the federal government.

Education
Americans’ opinion of education policy and administration at the federal level is poor. Just 22% would give federal policy on education a grade of A or B.
However, at the local level, more than half of the residents gave their home school district an A or B for their administration and quality of education, Pew found. It’s not just average citizens who feel this way.
“In 2021, for example, teachers were 30 points more likely to give schools in their local area an A or B grade than to give the same positive marks to schools nationally,” Pew reports.

News media
For decades, Americans have trusted their local media over national outlets. This is especially true for community newspapers nationwide, which are consistently named the most trusted news source.
“Last year, 74% of Americans said they had at least some trust in the information that comes from local news organizations, but 59% said the same about information from national news organizations,” Pew found.
However, when national pollsters use the term “local news,” they include metropolitan newspapers and television stations. When community newspapers in small towns across a state are pulled out of this mix, they have even higher levels of trust.

Crime and policing
When it comes to our perception of how bad crime is in America, citizens have always said it is much worse at the national level and in big cities than at the local level.
They see crime rising nationally, but the safety of their community remains stable. This belief persists, though crime rates today are far below where they were in 1990, Pew reports.

Going in the right direction
Americans generally have a much better opinion of how their state and local governments handle many issues that help improve their quality of life.
“In a 2023 survey by the American Communities Project, 63% of Americans said their communities were going in the right direction, including majorities in every community type the researchers looked at,” Pew reports.
In stark contrast to that local opinion, “only 18% of Americans said the country was going in the right direction. In some communities, the share who said this was as low as 10%.”

What’s behind this pattern?
“It’s not entirely clear why Americans consistently express more positive views about local issues than national issues,” Pew Research writes.
It suggests that it might have something to do with people having control over where they live, choosing the communities and the neighborhoods where they settle down. This choice gives them a more positive view of their local quality of life. But we know that many people don’t have the financial ability to choose where they live, don’t have job options, and choose to stay close to family and friends.
Their points of view are shaped by their local experiences, which are often better than what they are told is happening nationally. We understand there is a tendency to cheer for the home team. But this also doesn’t explain the depth of the divide.
When it comes to our members of Congress, we may naturally favor someone we know over those only known as serving at the Capitol on the East Coast. Our local members of Congress visit our communities, interact with local leaders, and are reported on in our local newspapers.
However, we see the divisiveness of our society at the national level increasingly creeping into our local perceptions of our member of Congress. Former 7th District Rep. Collin Peterson, a conservative “Blue Dog” Democratic, had broad support among Democrats and Republicans. It was Republican moderates who helped elect him to 10 terms in Congress.
With current Republican U.S. Rep. Michelle Fischbach, the line of support is much more rigid. She has strong Republican support, but little support from the district’s moderates or Democrats.

What’s really the problem
What Pew misses in its reporting and research is the impact of national news and the coverage at the local level.
Locally, we don’t have the constant barrage of news tearing down the opposing sides on a decision. We don’t have political parties whose primary purpose is to oppose anything the other side proposes. We don’t report on public officials constantly villainizing one another, creating distrust and animosity, because it is rare where we live.