As the midterm elections begin, U.S. society is stretching its existing polarization to a new extreme, writes Ramzy Baroud.
U.S. President Donald Trump delivering remarks on the economy, on Feb. 19, 2026, at the Coosa Steel Corporation in Rome, Georgia. (White House /Daniel Torok)
A January 2026 Gallup poll showed that 89 percent of all Americans expect high levels of political conflict this year, as the country heads into one of its most decisive midterm elections ever.
Gallup, however, was stating the obvious. It is a surprise that not all Americans feel this way, judging by the coarse, often outright racist discourse currently being normalized by top American officials. Some call this new rhetoric the “language of humiliation,” where officials refer to entire social and racial groups as “vermin,” “garbage,” or “invaders.”
The aim of this language is not simply to insult, but to feed the “Rage Bait Cycle” – tellingly, Oxford’s 2025 Word of the Year: a high-ranking official attacks a whole community or “the other side”,” waits for a response, escalates the attacks, and then presents himself as a protector of traditions, values and America itself.
This does more than simply “hollow out” democracy, as suggested in a Human Rights Watch report last January; it prepares the country for “affective polarization,” where people no longer just disagree on political matters, but actively dislike each other for who they are and what they supposedly represent.
How else can we explain the statements of U.S. President Donald Trump, who declared last December:
“Somalia… is barely a country… Their country stinks and we don’t want them in our country… We’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country. Ilhan Omar is garbage. She’s garbage. Her friends are garbage.”
This is not simply an angry president, but an overreaching political discourse supported by millions of Americans who continue to see Trump as their defender and savior.
This polarization reached a fever pitch at the 2026 Super Bowl, where the halftime selection of Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny ignited a firestorm over national identity. While millions celebrated the performance, Trump and conservative commentators launched a boycott, labeling the Spanish-language show “not American enough” and inappropriate.
Bad Bunny listing off all the countries in the Americas was powerful. If only the United States would stop invading them and start respecting the sovereignty of its neighbors. pic.twitter.com/3XbiH9ll83
— Power to the People ?? (@ProudSocialist) February 9, 2026
The rhetoric escalated further when Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem suggested ICE agents would be “all over” the event, effectively ostracizing countless people from their right to belong to a distinct culture within American society.
The weaponization of culture and language was not limited to the stage; it split American viewers into two distinct camps: those who watched the official performance and those who turned to an “All-American” alternative broadcast hosted by Turning Point USA (TPUSA) featuring Kid Rock.
This “countering” is the very essence of the American conflict, which many have rightly predicted will eventually reach a breaking point akin to civil war.
That conclusion seems inevitable as the culture war couples with three alarming trends: identity dehumanization; partisan mirroring — the view that the other side is an existential threat; and institutional conflict — where federal agencies are perceived as “lawless,” sitting congresswomen are labeled “garbage,” and dissenting views are branded as treasonous.
Legitimacy Crisis & Historical Tensions
This takes us to the fundamental question of legitimacy. In a healthy democracy, all sides generally recognize the legitimacy of the system itself, regardless of internal squabbles.
In the United States, this is no longer the case. We are entering a state of regime cleavage — a political struggle no longer concerned with winning elections, but one where dominant groups fundamentally disagree on the very definition of what constitutes a nation.
The current crisis is not a new phenomenon; it dates back to the historical tension between “assimilation” within an American “melting pot” versus the “multiculturalism” often compared to a “salad bowl.”
The melting-pot principle, frequently promoted as a positive social ideal, effectively pressures immigrant communities and minorities to “melt” into a white-Christian-dominated social structure. In contrast, the salad-bowl model allows minorities to feel very much American while maintaining their distinct languages, customs and social priorities, thus without losing their unique identities.
While this debate persisted for decades as a highly intellectualized academic exercise, it has transformed into a daily, visceral conflict. The 2026 Super Bowl served as a stark manifestation of this deeper cultural friction.
Underlying Factors
Protesters with Occupy Wall Street in NYC, Nov. 17, 2011. (Z22, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons)
Several factors have pushed the United States to this precipice: a struggling economy, rising social inequality and a rapidly closing demographic gap. Dominant social groups no longer feel “safe.” Although the perceived threat to their “way of life” is often framed as a cultural or social grievance, it is, in essence, a struggle over economic privilege and political dominance.
There is also a significant disparity in political focus. While the Right — represented by the MAGA movement and TPUSA — possesses a clarity of vision and relative political cohesion, the “other side” remains shrouded in ambiguity.
According to a recent poll by the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), meanwhile, trust in traditional political institutions among voters aged 18–25 has plummeted to historic lows, with over 65 percent expressing dissatisfaction with both major parties.
As the midterm elections approach, society is stretching its existing polarization to a new extreme. While the Right clings to the hope of a savior making the country “great again,” the “Left” is largely governed by the politics of counter-demonization and reactive grievances — hardly a revolutionary approach to governance.
Regardless of the November results, much of the outcome is already predetermined: a wider social conflict in the U.S. is inevitable. The breaking point is fast approaching.
Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a widely published and translated author, an internationally syndicated columnist and editor of The Palestine Chronicle. His latest book is The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story (Pluto Press, 2018). He earned a Ph.D. in Palestine Studies from the University of Exeter (2015), and was a non-resident scholar at Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, UCSB. Visit his website.
This article is from Z Network, is funded solely through the generosity of its readers.
Views expressed in this article and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
“…it prepares the country for “affective polarization,” where people no longer just disagree on political matters, but actively dislike each other for who they are and what they supposedly represent.”
Yes, it hurts to agree that name calling & demonization of the other is a too quick & easy response. It becomes circular. And mockery can only go so far.
Even if they could come up with a legal means to challenge the elites & their captured institutions, I think the intellectual class is going to need all the help they can get from us commoners. And that means a need to use clear, plain language. I doubt you’re going to see Stop Affective Polarization on a protest sign.
Meanwhile, the ruling class has a head start to foment dramatic change in the only way they seem to know how. Drive the whole caboodle into the ground, then sift through the enormous pain & suffering at their leisure to sort out any valuable bits.
Starting in the hole doesn’t quite cover it. More like in the bottom of a crater.
great
Elections are always most important, but only to the politicians and those controlling them.
A much bigger problem than the people at the bottom whining about losing their jobs or competing with Others for their livelihoods, and seeing preferential treatment of these Others (grants, DEI — better than Merit, much like Leaky Vaccines are better than Natural Immunity– showering foreign nations with money) is the fact that our Elites live in gated communities isolated from the real world, think only in terms of money, aspire to global control rather than national, and are Above the Law). Most on the bottom can give as good as they get when taunted about their ethnicities and heritage, assimilation requires thick skins, and they have much more important worries (ie, survival of their families). Anyone who believes that the people who say derogatory stuff out loud are the problem are deluded by their stupidity. All our Elites share the view that they are better than the rest of us (ie, they have much more money. Well earned for sure).
Salad bowl or melting pot points directly to the challenge.
It is the unwillingness and lack of necessity of today’s immigrants to engage in their new home that limits their growth.
This is seen in – and is identical to – the flight of urban folk to rural areas , and their inability leave their totems behind.
Thus the rural become exactly what the urban-dwellers were fleeing.
Melting pot does no need to mean loss of identity.
Loss of identity comes from economic disparity — as evidenced by the extremes of wealth.
Breaking
Jim Carey’s Double
Scott makes the circuit
Truth somewhre in between ?
Sorry, this piece lost me with the first sentence: “…as the country heads into one of its most decisive midterm elections ever.” We have not had a meaningful election in over a quarter century.
have to say if i remember correctly over fifty years now each vote is always the most critical, crucial, blah, blah to where one day it’ll be “the boy who cried wolf”. Jamie Aliperti is demographically correct- the majority have tuned out & don’t even go to the polls. So much for kleptocratic corporatocracy masquerading as “freedom fries” or whatever b.s.
I felt the same way. The author also says that the “Right” is fairly politically cohesive, overlooking the huge fissure over Israel, but Baroud at least puts quotation marks around the word “Left” and then accurately describes the Dems’ obsession with “counter-demonization and reactive grievances.” The midterms will change nothing in the downward trajectory of the US political class.
Yes, but I would say in a half century or longer. We can shuffle the deck chairs on the proverbial. Our “elections” offer only two choices: genocide, war, kleptocracy with the Red Team, or: genocide, war, kleptocracy for the Blue Team.
As George Carlin would say if he were here: F all of them! I aint votin for no genocide, they can go fk themselves.
UNTIED STATES of AMERICA.
will all the king’s horses, all the king’s men
honestly want to put them together again?
YEAH! big ups for this comment here. Julia Eden is on point AF
How about UNHINGED STATES OF ISRAEL-AMERICA [USIA]? I put Israel first since as the tail, it is clearly wagging the dog [USA].
The country is imploding upon itself politically, economically and socially – this much is clear at a distance. The rot, or corruption if you prefer, reaches right down to the local level, making it hard – if not impossible to clean out, without major societal upheaval.
Its federal government, or more accurately the ‘regime’ currently in charge, has gone rogue – as evidenced by its wrecking ball behaviour internally and externally.
This latest reckless gamble in the Middle East is going to cost it dearly, and may well bring down the president and his cabal.
It might well be the catalyst for a civil war.