As a nation, we’re a mess. Hopelessly divided, forever fighting, with political leaders who throw gasoline, not water, on the fire.

That’s the conventional wisdom. And there certainly is evidence in anecdotes and surveys of public opinion to support that view. It ranges from a Gallup poll finding that 80% of American adults believe our country is divided on important values to Pew Research Center polling revealing that 72% of Republicans and nearly two-thirds of Democrats say members of the opposing party are more immoral and dishonest than other Americans.

Numbers like that sketch a gargantuan divide.

But as with so much about America, it’s more complicated than that. What’s been described as our fierce polarization seems to have conditioned many of us to respond in knee-jerk reaction when asked about our supposed political foes. Because when talk turns to actual issues, it turns out we agree with each other a lot more than we are given credit for.

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