Now It's Democrats Who Feel Their Values Threatened—and Are Voting

In Karen Stenner’s penetrating 2005 study of the forces that tear societies apart, she explains that some people strongly prefer diversity, dynamism, and difference, while others have a powerful, possibly innate need for oneness and sameness. Politicians can exploit the latter predisposition, as Donald Trump did when he told his fellow Americans that their usurping Kenyan president was too lazy, disloyal, and incompetent to stop Mexican rapists, Muslim terrorists, and minority street gangs—and that only he could stop the “carnage” on America’s streets.

Trump’s unusually naked authoritarian rhetoric stoked dark fears and prejudices, activating the latent predispositions toward intolerance possessed by some in his base. Anti-immigrant sentiments increased. Calls for