THE UNITED STATE OF AMERICA

Yes, we said 'UNITED' -That's what Newsweek writers and readers told us

"WHAT BINDS US? WHAT DO WE ALL HAVE IN common anymore?" Justice Clarence Thomas asked in a rare media interview aired on Fox News in 2017. "We always talk about E Pluribus Unum," Thomas said, referring to the traditional motto of the United States which translates as "out of many, one." "We need more unum. We have the pluribus."

The media headlines of the past year suggest that things have gotten a lot worse since 2017-and both Thomas and Fox played a part in the divisiveness. But if you look beyond the headlines, including those on Newsweek, a different picture emerges. Even in what feels like an angry, factionalized society, there are signs of unity.

Take the Supreme Court, a lightning rod in America's cultural and political storms. The highest court was less divided and less divisive in its 2022-23 term. (To be fair, not much could be as divisive as the Court's decision, in the previous term, to overturn Roe v. Wade.) The nine justices were unanimous in nearly half of their decisions, more than double the proportion of the previous term. Liberals and conservatives voted together on most decisions that were not unanimous, including half of the 12 that were decided 6-3, a vote that could reflect the Court's partisan split.

In one significant 6-3 case, the Court rebuffed an attempt by Republican politicians to put state elections outside the scope of judicial review in Moore v. Harper, to the relief of most Democrats and moderate Republicans. And while the six conservative justices got no liberal support when they effectively ended race-based affirmative action in college admissions in two cases involving Harvard and the University of North Carolina, the ruling itself was largely popular. Poll after poll has shown that majorities of Americans do not support the use of race as a factor in college admissions.