It’s easy to look around and think that our age of vitriolic and contemptuous politics is “unprecedented.” 

The hatred hurled at a reporter from the Las Vegas Review-Journal last week lends credence to the notion that we live in times far more peppered with political absurdity than ever before. Indeed, the way almost everything seems to be a potential flashpoint for political tension illustrates the degree to which we have become increasingly derisive of each other in our partisan era. 

And polling from Pew Research Center seems to back this up. 

According to the poll conducted last year, a majority of partisans believe their political “others” aren’t merely wrong about policy but are also immoral and dishonest usurpers of our democratic institutions. It’s a belief that the data suggests is only worsening in recent years. 

In 2016, about half of Republicans and a third of Democrats believed members of the opposing party were “more immoral” than other Americans. Today, that number has exploded to 72 percent of Republicans and 63 percent of Democrats. Similar numbers believe their partisan counterparts — even rank-and file members of the opposite party — are more “dishonest.” And more than 80 percent of Democrats and nearly 70 percent of Republicans describe their partisan rivals as the most “closed minded” members of the American public. 

In other words, the contempt we feel for our political others is on the rise across the board. It’s a trend that even exists among independents. Pew reported the majority of independents who lean slightly toward either party do so not out of confidence or trust in their preferred side of the political aisle, but out of distrust and disdain for the other. 

Combined with modern events such as the aftermath of the 2020 election, growing threats of political violence, the proliferation of “fake news” and a never-ending rotation of partisan opportunists rising to prominence, it’s easy to see why we often think of our times as uniquely volatile. 

However, they really aren’t. 

Our modern era isn’t the first time America has waded into seemingly irreconcilable political differences. American history is replete with times when divides ran so deep, and passions were so inflamed, that unhinged political quarreling, riots and even violence were stunningly common parts of life. 

As Jon Grinspan wrote in Smithsonian Magazine, for example, the second half of the 19th century was a time of massive cultural upheaval — even beyond the obvious events that culminated in a bloody civil war. And that upheaval manifested itself after 1865 into a political ecosystem not unlike the hate-filled one we see today. 

In fact, it was arguably much worse in many respects.  

Following the Civil War, the American electorate was invigorated by a promising new world of “pure democracy” as the old aristocracy lost its grip on power. And, as a result, involvement in political affairs was taken seriously among the general public — even among the many classes of citizens who had not yet won the right to vote. 

In the decades that followed, America saw its highest voter participation rates in history, routinely topping 80 percent of eligible voters in presidential years. Discourse over public policy was so impassioned and generated such bitter rivalries, tourists and immigrants to our land often wrote home to their families in sheer awe of the average citizens’ engagement in the political process. 

However, such engagement wasn’t exactly civil. By 1877, two dozen political officials had been fatally attacked — not including President Abraham Lincoln. On average, a sitting congressman was murdered every seven years and political violence was so commonplace, partisan gangs would regularly attack, coerce and even kidnap opposition members to keep them from casting ballots. And that’s to say nothing of the violent terrorism instigated by groups such as the Ku Klux Klan.  

Much of the discontent and disruption of American politics following the Civil War is easily understood, given the cultural landscape of the time. The nation was still reeling from the emotional and human cost of the war; a changing economy was shifting the traditional socioeconomic structure; massive inbound immigration from all over the world was altering the cultural makeup of communities; and there was a growing push among traditionally disenfranchised minorities to be (rightfully) included in the democratic process.  

Among all this cultural, economic and social disruption, political parties of the era promised voters a false sense of stability — encouraging them to adopt their political preferences as an extension of their personal identity. Political factions offered loyalists simple-sounding solutions to complex social problems by fueling contempt for opponents who were portrayed as standing in the way of an American utopia. And when persuasion alone wasn’t effective, they resorted to intimidation, spreading “fake news” and even engaging in outright violence.  

In other words, America has seen political division and contempt that goes far beyond that which we currently endure. Nonetheless, much of what we see in today’s political world is still disturbingly reminiscent of those years when torchlit marches and political terrorism was at its peak. Even our increased levels of voter participation in recent years seem to mirror that of eras when passions were most inflamed and the vitriol most palpable. 

Not since 1900 had we seen a turnout as large as that in the 2020 election — and, just as it was in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, that increase was accompanied by equally high levels of bitter partisanship and threats of violence. If one imagines a few more political assassinations, riotous partisan clashes among protestors and an unchecked level of corruption among the “ruling class,” one can easily imagine the sort of political discord that defined much of the late 1800s. 

Actually, we might not even have to imagine very hard if our contemptuous attitudes toward each other continue to grow. 

The social, economic and political disruptions of the past four decades seem tailormade to heighten tensions and drive wedges between even the most amenable partisan factions. However, that’s precisely what makes the growing loathsome and disdainful attitudes of modern politics so disconcerting: Not that it’s novel or unprecedented, but that it’s reminiscent of violent and illiberal eras we thought we had well outgrown. 

Michael Schaus is a communications and branding expert based in Las Vegas, Nevada, and founder of Schaus Creative LLC — an agency dedicated to helping organizations, businesses and activists tell their story and motivate change. He has more than a decade of experience in public affairs commentary, having worked as a news director, columnist, political humorist, and most recently as the director of communications for a public policy think tank. Follow him at SchausCreative.com or on Twitter at @schausmichael.