United we stand, divided we fall: that’s a trademark of America. Some say we’re divided now more than ever—left vs. right, Trump vs. Biden, capitalist vs. socialist, big government vs. small; the list goes on and on.

I understand why some may believe this; looking at the state of our country now, it’s easy to make that assumption, but in reality, we’ve been divided politically since the beginning, so this is nothing new.

Looking at our nation's history, you’ll see instances of political divide that have a familiarity to the situation today. One example is the political divide during the “Gilded Age,” when most Americans were fiercely loyal to their party, as well as a high voter turnout ranging between 70-80% preceding the 1876 election. Republicans and Democrats were in a stalemate with the Senate controlled by the left, and the House controlled by the right, with each other constantly preventing the passing of major initiatives by failing and refusing to find common ground. The Republicans were dubbed the “party of morality” because they were the party to end slavery, while Democrats were portrayed as “anti-morality.”

Doesn’t that sound familiar? Yeah, I thought so.

Now, if you are looking for a more extreme example, remember when our country literally was split in half North and South, and we fought the Civil War? Can we get more divided than that?

We may seem more divided now than ever because of a variety of reasons with the most major being social media—the unofficial battleground of American politics. While social media does have some advantages, for instance instantaneous sharing of world news and communication, it does have its drawbacks, like an over-abundance of propaganda, fake news, and plain-old hype.

It also allows for politicians to be broadcasted on a much larger scale, which therefore takes mudslinging to a much larger scale. Mudslinging is when politicians purposefully slander one another on a personal level in order to culminate them. Again, this practice is nothing new—in fact, look up why the mascot of the Democratic Party is a donkey; now there’s a story.

We may not stand as United as we should, but we aren’t yet so divided that we are bound to fall. Remember that a little bit of political division is a good thing—it keeps things interesting while keeping power in check, but too much and we’ve got a second Civil War on our hands. The trick is to find the balance.