  Democrats and Republicans have seemed to grow apart in the past three
decades. Since the United States as we know it today is undeniably bipartisan,
this phenomenon would not appear as a surprise to most. However, there are
triggers which can cause spikes in disagreements between Democrats and
Republicans at a higher rate than how the two parties have been growing apart
gradually over time. This study has analyzed the idea that national events
which generally are detrimental to all individuals can be one of those
triggers. By testing polarization before and after three events (Hurricane
Sandy [2012], N. Korea Missile Test Surge [2019], COVID-19 [2020]) using
Twitter data, we show that a measurable spike in polarization occurs between
the Democrat and Republican party. In order to measure polarization, sentiments
of Twitter users aligned to the Democrat and Republican parties are compared on
identical entities (events, people, locations, etc.). Using hundreds of
thousands of data samples, a 2.8% increase in polarization was measured during
times of crisis compared to times where no crises were occurring. Regardless of
the reasoning that the gap between political parties can increase so much
during times of suffering and stress, it is definitely alarming to see that
among other aspects of life, the partisan gap worsens during detrimental
national events.
