The political shifts that in 2016 first appeared to be a function of Trump’s personality-driven populism began to look like part of a permanent realignment, with party coalitions sorting on the basis of education levels, culture, and a growing urban versus exurban geography, rather than the old divides of religion, income, or even ideology. Those trends polarized issues that once were largely removed from politics; after Trump was booed at rallies for recommending coronavirus vaccines, he complained privately that he couldn’t get proper credit for their existence due to opposition from what he
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