In the first few hours after the 2024 presidential election was called in favor of Donald Trump, millions of devastated Americans were asking themselves and each other the same question: How did this happen? Although the literal answer is there in the votes, that is not what we are actually asking. Approaching the election, so many were filled with hope that even a slim majority of the American people had been put off enough by Trump’s bigotry, criminal charges or just plain incoherence. The danger that would result from Trump returning to office seemed like a no-brainer, a prospect only those with a serious gap in their morals would be in favor of. Yet he received over 74 million votes, more than he did in 2020.
Many of those who voted for Kamala Harris this year simply cannot conceptualize a mindset in which voting for Trump is the sensible choice. Therefore, we are left asking: Are there really that many Americans with such low standards? This very disconnect is the root of one of the biggest threats to American democracy today: Politics in this country is more polarized than it has ever been. In many cases, Americans who disagree politically are unable to have a coherent conversation about their views because the two sides of the spectrum have grown so divided that there is almost no overlap between them. Because of this polarization, the two candidates on the ballot basically represented two extremes, causing supporters of each to feel that the election of the other would be a step in the complete wrong direction. A presidential race this important should not have come down to the margins. Furthermore, the importance of this race is a problem in itself. The United States has become so divided that it almost feels wrong to call us united at all.
This degree of polarization should be a cause for concern. It is unacceptable that so many of us must simply avoid speaking about politics with family members whose beliefs are so cemented in their minds that productive debate is impossible. This is not normal.
The root of this problem lies in the growing presence of political echo chambers, which have been heavily bolstered by the internet and targeted algorithms. The Cambridge Dictionary defines echo chamber as “a situation in which people only hear opinions of one type.” In terms of American politics, this has manifested itself in the form of discursive spaces online and in the media, which are so heavily occupied by people who have the same viewpoint that the possibility for productive debate is effectively eliminated. Therefore, people who fall into these spaces will only have their pre-existing ideologies strengthened.
Such echo chambers exist among both liberals and conservatives. As a result, people who are only exposed to information within a heavily conservative echo chamber will exist in a completely different political reality than someone in a more liberal space. Ideas or theories that are integral to the latter point of view are completely incoherent to the former and vice versa. As more people get sucked into these political pigeonholes, spaces of common ground between Republicans and Democrats have grown smaller and smaller. This even applies to mainstream news outlets like Fox or CNN, which have grown increasingly biased in recent years. Even Americans who receive most of their news from those national networks may find themselves in an echo chamber-esque space. When one gets further towards either side of the political spectrum and what they see remains unchallenged, their reality becomes more and more removed from actual reality. This phenomenon presents a threat to an effective democracy because it has resulted in huge numbers of Americans casting their votes based on biased information and, in some cases, misinformation. Although this issue is not new, it has been worsened by online platforms that show content similar to what a person has previously interacted with, speeding up the process of becoming surrounded by one single ideology.
The Harris campaign’s attempts to sway independent or undecided voters arguably points to the fact that the majority of Americans were already steadfast in their choice of candidate long before election day. It seems a fair assumption to say both campaigns saw it would essentially be pointless to try and sway voters whose views already lay too far in either direction because they are far more likely to be those who source their political knowledge from biased sources. And when enough biased sources are parroting the same story, a person who is not exposed to any other point of view is very likely to fall into the kind of echo chamber described above. This is worrying. I am not trying to say that Harris’ decision to target campaigns at undecided voters and swing states in this past election were necessarily wrong because given the polarization of American politics at this point, it was basically the only option.
This election should not have come down to the undecided. That is not fair for either candidate, as both were left grasping for just enough votes to outnumber the other, and it is certainly not a successful exercise of democracy. It is unreasonable to ask any presidential candidate to compete against another when there are competing narratives circulating both which are so full of falsehoods. It seems almost laughable to ask a country that is so divided to come together to vote for one leader and be satisfied with the outcome.
We must encourage stronger media literacy among Americans. Rather than ignoring the echo chambers that encircle so many voters and focusing on those who are not completely stuck, we must work towards dismantling them completely. Especially in a world where the internet exposes us to directly targeted content, we must take special care to ensure that the political information we are consuming is as objective as possible. This is the only way to ensure that the democratic election process will proceed fairly and to create an American political climate that is not so polarized.
Being human is about connection. Connection is essential for a successful democracy. If we keep allowing ourselves and each other to descend into these rabbit holes of false reality, that connection will fail. With the election of Trump for a second term as president, we have failed.
We cannot fail again.