Monday, October 10, 2016

"The Reassembling of New Democratic and Republican Coalitions Is Nearly Finished"

"Social issues spurred a partisan realignment by changing who considered themselves Democrats and Republicans. Over decades, socially conservative working-class whites migrated from the Democratic Party to join the Republican Party, especially in the South. Socially moderate Republicans, especially on the East Coast, shifted to the Democratic coalition. Now, there's little disagreement within each party on social issues. Liberal Republicans are as rare as Reagan Democrats.
"Like an ebb tide that reveals a reshaped coastline, the culture war remade the parties' membership and is now receding. In its absence, we are able to see a transformed political landscape.
"The culture war and partisan realignment are over; the policy realignment and 'border war'—a clash between nationalists, mostly on the right, and multicultural globalists, mostly on the left—have just begun."

Michael Lind in Politico argues that in this year, "the old political system is crumbling, and a new American political order is being born."

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