Social scientists believe they know why America has become so divided along political lines. “The human brain in many circumstances is more suited to tribalism and conflict than to civility and reasoned debate,” The Wall Street Journal reported last month in a piece headlined “Why Tribalism Took Over Our Politics.”
Modern communication tools are especially able to exploit this finding, providing users with what they want to hear rather than challenging assumptions.
“Decades of social science research show that our need for collective belonging is forceful enough to reshape how we view facts and affect our voting decisions,” the essay asserts. “When our group is threatened, we rise to its defense.”
The Journal cites Donald Trump as a reliable practitioner of exploiting group identity, although it allows that Democrats also use the tactic, but “not as forcefully.”
It’s true that the former president’s ardent supporters see themselves in similar terms as outsiders scorned by the elites. But the idea that Democrats only reluctantly appeal to this base instinct is laughable. The Democratic Party virtually invented the toxic notion of identity politics and has built entire coalitions on the idea that individuals are defined, not by their words or deeds, but by their skin color, sexual preference or any number of other characteristics.