The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again

by Robert D. Putnam

This partisan prejudice shows up both in online dating and in actual marriages, as people are increasingly choosing their partners on the basis of political affiliation, even more than on the basis of education or religious orientation.90 Over the last half century marriage across racial and religious lines has become much more common than either used to be,91 whereas marriage across party lines has become much less common.92 This increasing agreement between husband and wife about politics in turn strengthens the inheritance of party identity by the next generation, since we know that children are more likely to inherit party identity when both parents agree politically. In this very intimate way, over the last half century partisanship has gradually replaced religion as the main basis of “tribal” affiliation in America.