Name: Top 10 Most Divisive Periods in American History
Uploaded: 2025-02-27T10:57:57.000Z
Duration: 14 min 47 s
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We are divorced, north from south, because we hated each other so.

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the times throughout United States history when its citizens were most divided.

We wanted to make it clear that business as usual could not go on.

When George Washington stepped down in 1796, he warned the country not to splinter into political parties.

He was becoming brittle and ill-tempered.

He would go into furious rages, largely about the forces of partisanship that he could feel exploding even within his own cabinet.

He had no idea how convoluted they would become.

The two main parties ran on completely opposite platforms for decades.

In 1932, a key shift happened when Franklin D.

Roosevelt won the presidency, running as a Democrat.

So first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

He implemented the New Deal through any means necessary, including expanding governmental powers.

Government intervention reached its highest point, however, in the Tennessee Valley Authority.

This program built a series of dams in the Tennessee River Valley to control floods, prevent deforestation, and provide cheap electric power to people in rural counties in seven southern states.

This sowed discord both within the political sphere and among citizens.

It was also during this time that Republicans began to undergo several changes in their ideology, focusing on conservative economic and social policies.

Before this, there were fiscal conservatives and liberals in both parties, they were all over the if you were more liberal, you were Democrat.

Democrats responded in turn, leading to a complete swap in voting demographics.

This deepened the rift between the two parties, one that's still noticeable today. 9. 2000 Election Dispute and the Bush Era Elections are a staple of American politics, but they aren't always indisputable.

Some have been incredibly close, and the subsequent results have only created more division.

This was apparent during the 2000 race between Al Gore and George W.

The results were too close to call, resulting in a series of recounts and legal battles.

The vote is now so close between them that there will be an automatic recount.

After a month-long dispute, the victory went to Bush, with him winning by less than 1% of the vote.

Vice President Gore and I put our hearts and hopes into our campaigns.

While the results were accepted, there were still several questions called into play, including the accuracy of the ballots used.

Democrats charge a confusing ballot layout led voters to think they were punching the ballot for Al Gore when they were actually voting for Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan. 3,500 people did not vote for Pat Buchanan.

Come on, this is heavily Democratic The dispute only served to further the already-growing divide between urban centers and more rural areas across the country. 8.

TRUMP ERA Donald Trump announcing his candidacy in 2015 led to a splintered reaction.

You know, all of my life I've heard that a truly successful person, a really, really successful person, and even modestly successful, cannot run for public office.

And yet, that's the kind of mindset that you need to make this country great again.

Those who supported him saw him as a chance to shake things up, while his detractors saw him as destructive.

It caused a rift within the Republican Party, with traditionalists disavowing his more extreme policies.

He's a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot.

He doesn't represent the values that the men and women who wear the uniform are fighting for.

His eventual win in 2016 sparked significant division and fueled serious tensions between his base and the left, and even amongst relatives.

The divisiveness among Americans was exacerbated following Trump's 2020 election loss and his re-election in 2024.

This kind of political polarization isn't entirely new.

In the latter half of the 20th century, the realignment of conservative Southern Democrats caused increasing tensions between the two camps.

Number seven, Watergate scandal and Nixon's resignation.

It's a lengthy legal procedure that comes with its own set of political consequences.

On June 17, 1972, there was a break-in at the Democratic National Committee's headquarters in the Watergate office complex.

This was the start of what would be the political crime of the century.

However, members of Nixon's campaign were caught planting recording devices within the meeting place of the Democratic National Committee, which set off a domino effect he couldn't escape.

Really, the White House became a kind of criminal enterprise by the end of his presidency to a remarkable extent that I think we didn't understand at the time.

His attempts to distance himself from the controversy led to the discovery of his own devices, leading to calls for his removal.

While he wasn't officially impeached, Nixon resigned from the presidency and was immediately pardoned by his successor, Gerald Ford.

This proved to be divisive amongst the public, with many calling for Nixon to face the consequences of his actions.

May God's grace be with you in all the days ahead.

While it may have been a time of progress, it wasn't without its own challenges.

The fourth party system ushered in a nearly undisputed reign of Republican power, thanks to the realignment of both the populist and Greenback parties.

Adding certain elements of populism shored up Democratic support in the South and the Midwest, but for many Americans, their ideas were too radical and the Democrats were unable to elect any presidential candidates between 1896 and 1932, with one exception, Woodrow Wilson.

It was a time of social movements, such as women's suffrage, eventually leading to the passing of the 19th Amendment.

And in the following November, the ladies appeared at the polls on election day by the hundreds of thousands.

While this caused debate, the real issues lay in corporations becoming intertwined with politics.

This was most apparent with the implementation of high tariffs, which many taxpayers argued would negatively affect those without wealth.

It came to a head when Theodore Roosevelt split off from the GOP to form the short-lived Progressive Party, causing a permanent rupture within the Republican base.

The party didn't outlast Theodore Roosevelt himself, but in 1912, it did bring together those Americans who thought that a strong federal government, active in the public welfare and also active on the international scene, was what a great nation needed.

Number five, post-revolution, federalism versus anti-federalism.

Discord has been present since the country's infancy.

In 1777, representatives of the original 13 states drafted the initial document that would outline American society, the Articles of Confederation.

However, after America actually won its independence and became a functioning nation, it quickly became clear that the Articles were badly in need of some revision.

When trying to decide how to govern following the Revolutionary War, the constituents found themselves in one of two positions.

The first group, the Federalists, believed in strengthening the federal government, while the second group believed power should remain in the hands of the states.

Nothing is more certain than the need for government.

Long have we endured the powerful British government under the tyranny of King George.

Several debates took place, and some founding fathers even wrote a series of essays arguing for the Federalist cause.

It wasn't until the violence of Shay's Rebellion that Federalists gained more support.

In 1789, a new government was established, which was further cemented by the ratification of the Bill of Rights.

However, even with this development, the ongoing discourse was a sign of more division to come.

The rivalry of the Federalists versus the Anti-Federalists will continue all the way to present day in the form of our political parties. 4.

VIETNAM WAR Times of war are often divisive, especially when one of the parties inserts themselves unnecessarily.

They're the ones who have to win it or lose it.

We can help them, we can give them equipment, we can send our men out there as advisors, but they have to win it, the people of Vietnam, against the Communists.

The Vietnam War had been ongoing for a decade before the United States stepped in.

They had been involved from afar, but worries that Communism would spread led to the Western country sending troops of its own.

Our people in Vietnam are helping to protect people against terror.

This move was highly controversial, especially with the randomized draft that led millions of men to do whatever they could to avoid it.

Protests occurred across the country, with the National Guard turning on citizens, resulting in the deaths of four students at Kent State University.

What the investigators have to determine then is whether indeed there was a sniper and whether the Guard was justified in firing its weapons, or whether, as some people here believe, the Guard, under the pressure of a rock-throwing attack, panicked and fired its weapons indiscriminately, killing four people.

After the war ended, the country was left fractured and many lost faith in the military.

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Top 10 Most Divisive Periods in American History

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