In numbers - how divided we really are as a country as we look towards 2018:
Bottom Line: I've often pointed out that no matter how divided we seem to be today, or think we are as a country, we're inclined to suffer from a case of recentcy bias (the assumption that whatever is going on right now that we're living is more significant than what's happened previously). Given that we've fought a war against one another - it's safe to say that we're nowhere near as divided as a country as we've been in times previous. That being said we are as divided as we've been in the polling age (1930's on). For the most part we haven't been either/or types on policy. In other words, there's been room for pragmatism and difference of opinion without being completely divided on issues. That's still somewhat generally the case but the divides are wider than in times previous.
According to the Pew Research Center our values and views are 36% different based on our political leanings. In other words, our collective values are shared only about 64% of the time. Compare that to twenty years ago when the divide was only 15% and we shared 85% of the same values. The good news generally is that there is actually still more than unites us than divides us as a country but that's been progressively changing as political parties have increasingly been taking hard lines ideologically. Interestingly, the issue that's seen the largest increase in political agreement has been homosexuality's acceptance in society - including the evolution of marriage, rights and benefits. The area of greatest divide over the past twenty years has been immigration. Twenty years ago, solid majorities of all political stripes were opposed to amnesty and believed in the need to enforce immigration policies and laws. Today solid majorities of those who lean left are more likely to support "sanctuary status" than existing law enforcement.
While societies tend to go through a cyclical process of political views (hence why we typically have full term Presidents replaced with Presidents of an opposing party), however the growing divide on shared values has slowly and consistently only gone in one direction - and that's increasing division. It's unclear if we're as divided as we're going to be or if the divides will only continue to grow.