When a fight over national identity defines partisan conflict, social and cultural values come first. Voters adjust the rest of their political opinions accordingly. This conflict makes politics toxic, because it raises the stakes and collapses partisanship into a battle of us against them. It also reduces the pressure on parties and politicians to respond to economic demands, because voters do not cast ballots on economic issues. And when inequality continues to increase, more resentment follows. Parties have to respond to that resentment somehow. A party system organized around zero-sum
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