… As the nation has sorted itself along party lines and antipathy has risen between the two sides , white Republicans who might harbor racial animus are willing to shelve that impulse to ensure that Democrats lose elections. “At a minimum, the level of ideological polarization in American politics masks racially prejudiced voting behavior, and at a maximum, it renders it inoperable,” according to a recent study on white conservatives in the GOP’s base from professors M.V. Hood of the University of Georgia and Seth McKee of Texas Tech. The pull of partisanship is so strong and has become so central to the identity of white conservatives that their views on race take a back seat when they enter the voting booth. CONT.
Theodore R. Johnson (Georgetown), Washington Post