After President Joe Biden’s election, half of Republicans said the voting process was rigged. Republicans and Democrats are now more polarized than ever, not just when it comes to the election but also when it comes to other topics. 

According to the UK Independent, former President Donald Trump made more than 30,000 misleading statements during his four-year tenure as president. That is, on average, 21 false statements per day. In addition, he repeatedly denounced the election as “stolen” and “misleading,” according to The Washington Post. Trump’s overall behavior further shows that he is “the most polarizing president on record,” according to The Washington Post.

In addition, Trump rarely spoke for all the people of America and generally put himself before Americans. Moreover, he always categorized the American people as Republican or Democrat. “The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat,” Trump once retweeted.

Of course, there was polarization before Trump arrived at the White House, but he only worsened the situation. According to the Pew Research Center, only 5% of Trump supporters expressed hope for political unity, while 13% of Biden supporters expressed hope for unity.

“To me, it seems like there has always been disagreement between sides, but now I see an increase in hate and strong dislike and more us-versus-them type of mentality,” Upper School Learning Resources Coordinator John Norris said. 

For example, the Capitol mob on Jan. 6, 2021 consisted of many far-right Trump supporters. This shows that the country is becoming more polarized because mainly one side of the spectrum’s supporters took the Capitol under siege, while both sides reacted strongly. Trump created an environment where many members of the Republican party felt entitled to participate in the riot.

“It’s way easier to focus on differences than to compromise or recognize shared areas of agreement. American leaders have always kind of preached shared values and that kind of held the country together, until [Trump] appeared,” Norris said.

With political division at an all-time high, Biden has the difficult task of lessening the gap between Republicans and Democrats. He needs to fight for all of America, not just one party or the other.

I hope that Biden can bring this country closer together by being a president for the American people as a whole, not just one group. He needs to stop defining people by their political parties, and he must focus on Americans, not only one political side or the other. Biden likely will not be able to completely reconcile the two parties, but he will hopefully make a much more earnest attempt than Trump did. 

In order to reunite the country, Biden needs to do a couple of simple things. First, he needs to spread accurate, clear and trustworthy information to the people in the United States. Also, Biden needs to clarify what the new threats to freedom and violence in America are, and he needs to immediately confront these topics. He needs to be quick on his feet and not wait for action to come to him; he needs to be the one taking action toward national unification.