mango win No, Americans Are Not Really United

To the Editor:

Re “Americans Are More United Than We Think,” by Kristen Soltis Anderson (Opinion guest essay, Jan. 1):

Ms. Anderson deploys polling numbers to ostensibly show how in agreement Americans are on fundamental questions (e.g., skepticism of mass media, dissatisfaction with our democracy, etc.).

More than once, I’ve been startled that pundits, noting huge increases in Americans agreeing that the country is on the “wrong track,” present it as agreement. Missing is the obvious follow-up: Why do respondents think the country is on the wrong track? Or that the mass media is failing us?

That follow-up is where the real information is: Those respondents who believe that the media is failing because it is too “woke” are unlikely to agree on pretty much anything with those who believe it is failing because it kowtows to the far right.

Ms. Anderson is a Republican pollster who as such is probably desperate to find tea leaves telling her that Americans are really not in a virtual civil war. But if Americans were unified, how would we arrive at an election in which, with campaigns emphasizing diametrically opposite values,ph222 games beliefs and policies, the results for president were extremely close?

Jill RaymondSilver Spring, Md.

To the Editor:

The fundamental causes that have produced the widespread cynicism about institutions and even our democracy itself are the result of decades of propaganda by the radical right against government. This campaign has permeated the consciousness of many Americans who are looking for simplistic answers to their own misfortunes.

What has exacerbated the problem is that many of these individuals have been radicalized to such an extent that they are no longer interested in meaningful reform, but instead have adapted a burn-it-all-down ideology that Donald Trump and his MAGA movement represent.

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His debunked claims about Haitian migrants stealing and eating their neighbors’ pets in Springfield, Ohio, helped stir a firestorm over immigration in that community, which has dealt with bomb threats and evacuations after Mr. Trump made his comments.

Speaking in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, where Vice President Kamala Harris has a slight edge in recent polls, Mr. Trump bristled at the notion that his struggles with women voters could cost him the election and suggested that his tough talk about immigration and economic proposals would resonate with them.

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