Thread by @LilyMasonPhD

This new @apsrjournal article by me, @julie_wronski and @UptonOrwell includes an implication that we really only hint at in the conclusion and that I'd like to elaborate on here. cambridge.org/core/journals/…

First, the people who really like Trump in 2018 are the same ones who really disliked Blacks, Muslims, LGBT+, and Hispanics in 2011. It's NOT THE SAME for the GOP in general, or even for Ryan or McConnell. Trump is drawing on this particular group of people to a unique degree.

He is also doing this ACROSS PARTIES.

The new MAGA/anti-MAGA conflict is not an entirely partisan one. It's about white Christian supremacy versus a fully multi-racial democracy. The Trump effect occurs most powerfully at the most hateful end of the spectrum (above 0.5 on the animus scale).

And it's not happening for anyone on the Democratic side. Hating Christians and White people doesn't predict favorability toward any Democratic figures or the Democratic Party. So it isn't "anti-White racism" (whatever that means) motivating the left. It's not "both sides."

This means that there is a faction in American politics that has moved from party to party, can be recruited from either party, and responds especially well to hatred of marginalized groups. They're not just Republicans or Democrats, they're a third faction that targets parties.

THIS is the faction we, as Americans, should be worried about. "Bipartisanship" is not the answer to the problem. We need to confront this particular faction of Americans who have been uniquely visible and anti-democratic since before the Civil War (when they were Democrats).

We haven't really talked about them - except in extreme and isolated ways like talking about the KKK. But Trump served as a lightning rod for lots of regular people who hold white Christian supremacist beliefs. We neglect to name and identify them at the peril of democracy.

Their current control over the GOP makes it seem like a partisan issue. But this faction has been around longer than our current partisan divide. And calling it partisan is a misdirection (even if it is facially true).

It draws our attention away from the faction and forces us to "both-sides" democracy v. anti-democracy. These two sides are not equivalent. As academics and journalists, who are pressured into non-partisanship, it makes it difficult to speak honestly about the threat.

But this current research locates the faction in 2011, and observes them moving toward Trump himself by 2018, from across the political spectrum. Trump solidified the faction's control over the GOP, but they are not loyal to a party - they are loyal to white Christian domination.

This is the true but uncomfortable conversation we need to start having. It may seem "uncivil" or rude. It may break the norms of objective reporting and research. But these rules and norms have always protected this faction.

More than "polarization," we need to worry about the very real threat posed by an anti-democratic group that has always existed in the electorate, and has taken control of parties to cover for their explicitly anti-democratic aims. When we do point at them, they are indignant.

As long as they can hide behind party labels they are protected by "bipartisanship" and the both-sides implications of "polarization" research. It's time to bring this faction out of the protection of party labels and the veil of political civility, and into the discussion.