Well, this article suffers from a rather narrow and dim view of history. First off, partisan politics in America was defined for much of the 20th century by class affiliations. It was the Democratic Party, in the wake of the civil rights era and the disastrous 1968 Chicago convention and subsequent election, that decided to raise identity issues above class. So, after 30 years of driving home the point that it matters not if you’re poor but if you’re a member of an aggrieved group, is it any surprise that white working and middle-class voters began to gravitate to the Republicans?

But still, if whites really coalesced politically around their race and voted accordingly, their “white party” would win uncontested in every election because the USA is still 70% white. Obviously, that’s not the case.

I would suggest that all of this political controversy attributed to race is really capturing a lot of cultural antipathy for societies experiencing rapid migration under globalization. Any society is rooted in its traditions and dominant culture. But culture is malleable and most societies adapt to change at a reasonable pace that varies from culture to culture. When events push that pace past its assimilation rate, politics attempts to turn back the clock.

Nevertheless, all of this long preceded Donald Trump, who has merely given voice to the pushback, sometimes not using very judicious language and certainly using controversies to advance his political interests. But absent Trump, these conflicts remain.