ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the polarizing nature of the masses. The focus remains on US citizens and the divisive politics behind their thinking, which of course ultimately affects their preferences for candidates. Even Pope Francis, in his 2015 address to the US Congress, said that with the contemporary problems in the world, polarization must be combated. Perceptions of polarization are widely apparent in anecdotal evidence gathered in the 20th and 21st centuries. Political trust has also been argued to serve as a perceptual function of American polarization. When it comes to polarization in the masses, three different approaches are explored: priority differentials, opinion differentials, and perceptual differentials. The polarization approach can emphasize emotional feelings such as Democrats not trusting Republicans to govern the nation fairly and vice versa for Republicans. The sources of American polarization in the 21st century are frequently described as partisanship and ideology becoming more aligned within individual belief systems.
